Vampires, Werewolves, and WitchesOr not
by SarcasmBecomesMe
Summary: Bella's cousin from Alaska comes to live with her and Charlie, and turns quiet Forks upsidedown. Story takes place post-Twilght and will go through to Eclipse maybe even after...
1. Prologue

I was going to die

I was going to die. I could tell by the icy, black glare he was shooting me from across the clearing and the tense set of his shoulders.

A cool, ominous wind swept through the clearing as I met his gaze, stubbornly, silently mocking him; _I'm not afraid of death and I'm certainly not afraid of you. Do your worst._

His gaze turned mocking slightly, telling me that he fully intended to make me scream as I died. His stance changed slightly, becoming more like a cat that was preparing to spring.

Just as he launched himself at me, a dark shape came barreling out of the woods behind me, crashing into him like two boulders colliding in a mountain slide. I passed out from the sound of their collision.


	2. Chapter 1 Heeere's Rylie!

**Chapter One**

I stared out the window as the plane began its descent into "cheerful" Port Angeles. And, of course, by cheerful I mean gray, wet, and, well, wet. I sighed, thinking back on the whole ordeal that got me into this lovely little situation of having to move from my beloved Alaska to one of the rainiest places on earth.

Ever since my Mom and her second husband got a divorce and the courts decided that my mother would be the more competent of the two as far as raising a teenager goes, not to mention the fact that she was my actual, biological parent, my life has pretty much sucked some serious monkey butt. My step-dad, Kevin, practically raised me from 6 years old and on, took off to California and married a bleach-blonde bimbo. I'm usually lucky to even get a card on my birthday and Christmas and you can pretty much forget about a phone call. Mom ended up marrying some rich jerk with two sons who made a habit of trying to get a peek at me while changing, not that our parents believed me when I told them. The SOB also happened to be a "recovered" alcoholic, and periodically would show me just how "recovered" he was by kicking back some Scotch and taking swings at me if I happened to walk by the T.V. room at the wrong time.

So, after pleading with the court system for over two years and FINALLY getting them to see that my parents are completely incompetent, I was sent to live with my Uncle Charlie in the lovely little town of Forks, WA. Oh, goody.

With a sigh, I reached down under the seat in front of me to extract my carry-on. I don't see how some people feel the need to bring these gargantuan carry-on bags that took up most of the leg room. All you need on a flight is music to listen to and MAYBE a book or three to read (I'm a fast reader, so sue me).

As the plane FINALLY came to a stop, I practically leapt out of my seat and hurried down the aisle towards the exit (luckily, the plane had hardly anyone on it, so I didn't step on anyone's toes trying to escape the evil flying machine).

I made my way to the baggage claim, wondering if Uncle Charlie brought Bella with him. I knew that she'd come to live with him from Arizona, though if I remembered correctly from when I'd visit in the summers with her, she always hated coming up to Forks.

Upon entering the baggage claim, I immediately scanned the room for Charlie or Bella, hoping that they didn't forget I was coming in today. My eyes lit up when I saw them standing near one of the conveyer belts, not really paying attention to the terminal exit.

With a smug little smile, I crept towards them, blending in with the few people that happened to be walking in the same direction, until I was just behind Bella.

"Bella!!" I practically yelled in her ear as I threw my arms around her shoulders from behind and almost jumped up on her back (I didn't fully because, if I had, we both would have gone down due to her lack of coordination).

She let out a little shriek that caused several people to stare at the both of us strangely and Charlie to look like he had a heart attack. Once they both realized exactly who was attacking Bella, he gave me a weak smile and shook his head as she shot me a glare.

"Rylie, was that absolutely necessary?" Bella's glare lessened slightly as I let go of her and she turned to face me, fighting the grin that oh-so desperately wanted to be released. I grinned childishly back at her.

"No, but it was fun." I continued to smile at her until she couldn't help it and gave me a huge grin plus a hug.

"I'm so happy to see you, Rylie!" She nearly gushed, stepping back but continuing to hold on to my shoulders. "It's going to be really nice having another girl around the house."

"I'm sure," I shook my head at her and turned Charlie. "Hiya, Uncle Charlie. How goes it?"

"It goes, Rylie." He grinned at me and pulled me into a small hug; just an arm wrapped around my shoulders and a squeeze before releasing me. Charlie never really was one for touchy-feely stuff. "Now, why don't you get your bags and we can be on our way. We've still got an hour drive to Forks."

My bags didn't take long to find and collect and before I knew it, I was sitting in the back of Charlie's police cruiser heading towards Forks. Neither of them spoke too much on the way there, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence similar to the ones I'd grown used to back in Alaska; it was comfortable, peaceful even, and I found myself dozing off only to be awakened by the front passenger door slamming shut.

"Rylie, we're here." Bella tapped on the window and opened the door for me.

I climbed out and stretched, looking around at the house and yard that I had spent many a summer at. Nothing had really changed, with the exception of the fact that there was a beat up old Chevy in the driveway, which I could only assume was Bella's truck.

We hustled into the house, Charlie carrying one of my bags, the other two in my possession, and Bella left with nothing because I didn't trust her ability to carry a bulky, awkward suitcase up the stairs without damaging something.

Charlie dropped my stuff of in the guestroom that was now mine and left me to my own devices, which I appreciated. I hate people watching me unpack my things. I took all my clothes out of the suitcase, placing them neatly in the dresser or hanging them in the closet, before taking out various pictures of my friends and trinkets that I simply hadn't been able to part with.

I was just finishing up when Bella knocked on my door.

"Do you want me to heat up some leftovers for you, Rylie?" She leaned against the doorframe and watched as I shoved my suitcase into my closet.

"Nah." I said as I followed her down the stairs. "I ate before leaving and had some pretzels on the plane. But if you happen to have any munchies, I definitely wouldn't be opposed to some."

Bella rolled her eyes and lead the way downstairs

As we reached the bottom of the stairs, a knock sounded from the front door.

Bella's eyes lit up with excitement and she muttered something about "he's here" before hurrying to answer it.

I shook my head, thinking about how I would never understand my cousin, and continued on into the kitchen with one objective in mind: find some form of sustenance and take a long shower afterwards. I began to systematically search the kitchen cabinets, pleased to find that, since my last visit, they had been filled with all kinds of REAL food, more than likely thanks to Bella.

"Ah-ha!" I grinned in triumph as I located a box of Chips Ahoy! cookies. "Come here, you beautiful, wonderful thing you!" I stood up on my tip-toes to grab the box off the shelf (at 5'3", I was at a bit of a disadvantage in most houses).

I'd just take the first bite of a cookie when I heard Bella enter the kitchen behind me.

"Rylie, there's someone I want you to meet." Bella's voice told me that she was definitely excited about something.

I turned, still happily munching on my cookie, only to nearly choke on said cookie. Standing next to Bella was one of the most beautiful guys I'd ever seen. Not beautiful in the feminine sense, but in the fact that he was unnaturally good-looking.

"Rylie, this is my boyfriend, Edward Cullen. Edward, this is my cousin, Rylie Héixwaa. She's the one I told you about who was coming to live with Charlie and me."

I swallowed the cookie and cleared my throat before smiling and sticking my hand out.

"Hiya, Edward. Nice to meet you."

When he walked forward and took my hand in his, I nearly ripped my hand away. His skin was like ice!!

"Hello, Rylie. It's a pleasure." He smiled and withdrew his hand.

I glanced between them, sensing that they were wanting some alone time without the pesky 15 year old listening in.

I grabbed my cookies and a glass of milk, trying to move quickly and get out of the way.

"Rylie, where are you going?" Bella tore herself away from the convo with Edward as I walked by towards the stairs.

I shrugged. "Up to my room. I don't want to intrude on the two of you and I want to make a list of things I'll need from the store. Edward, it was nice to meet you; Bella, I'll see you in the morning."

Without another word, I marched up the stairs, shutting myself firmly in my room.


	3. Chapter 2 WakeyWakey! redux

**Chapter Two**

"Rylie, you really need to wake up now."

I rolled over and let out a groan as Bella flipped on the over-head light.

"Bella!! Turn off the light! It's too early." I moaned as I rolled over onto my stomach and pulled the covers over my head.

Bella sighed and for a moment I thought that I'd won the battle…until she yanked the covers off of me and the bed, hopped up and began to tickle me.

"Ack! B-Bella!! St-stop!!" I could barely get the words out, I was laughing so hard.

"Then get up!" She was laughing too, utterly merciless as she sat on me and attacked my sides.

I squirmed, still unable to stop laughing.

Eventually, Bella collapsed next to me and we both laid there for a moment, gasping for breath.

Finally, Bella sighed and pushed herself up, leaning back against the headboard.

"So what do you want to do today, Rylie?"

"Well, I still need to go to the store and pickup a few things, but other than that, I don't have anything else I need to do. If my memory serves me right, there's really nothing to do if Forks."

Bella let out a small laugh. "Very true."

She looked thoughtful for a moment and I'd just started to doze off when she spoke up excitedly.

"Well, I need to go to work today at the outdoor equipment place. You could walk over to the grocery store and pickup whatever you needed and we could go to lunch or something when I got off. Sound good?"

"Sure. I'll just walk around town until you get done, I guess."

Bella smiled and left me to my own devices.

With a sigh, I grabbed my bag of bathroom stuff and walked two doors down to the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later, I walked out, flushed red from the heat, with my hair piled messily on top of my head.

After shutting my bedroom door behind me, I stood in front of my closet, pondering what to wear.

I eventually decided on a pair of black hip-huggers with a royal blue, long-sleeved v-neck shirt, and blue and white Adidas on my feet.

I stepped in front of the mirror I'd hung up and let my hair down. My bangs were wispy and hung in front of my left eye, the rest of my hair falling thickly down to my mid-back like a shimmering black waterfall. I thankfully had enough body in it from my mother's side so it appeared to be wavy rather than stick straight like my father's had been, the bastard.

I pondered for a moment what I wanted to do with my hair, and decided to just leave it down and let it air dry.

I grabbed my iPod and danced down the stairs to the kitchen. When the song ended, I struck a dramatic pose, making Bella roll her eyes.

"Weirdo." she muttered.

I stuck my tongue out at her and began making toast. "You're just jealous of my kick-ass dance moves."

She threw a napkin at me and laughed. "Yeah, whatever."

"Hey, you wanna go? Bring it, chica!! I can take you any time, any where! Just as soon as I eat my breakfast. _The most important meal of the day! Serving it up, Rylie's waaaay!!!"_ I practically screeched at the top of my lungs.

Bella laughed and we sat in companionable silence broken only by the _shika-shika_ of my iPod, Bella turning the pages of Wuthering Heights, and me chewing on toast.

"Mmk." I mumbled around my last bite as I threw my napkin away and put my plate in the sink. "Ready when you are, chica."

Bella rolled her eyes and gently set her book down on the table, leading the way out of the kitchen to the front door.

She shut the door behind us as we headed for the truck, and after two attempts to start the Beast (my new nickname for it), we were on our way to town.


	4. Chapter 3 It's still the same

**Chapter Three**

"So, is there anything I should be on the look out for?" I asked Bella over the roar of the Beast's engine. I was waiting for it to suddenly die and send us into a tailspin into the nearest tree.

"Well," Bella hedged, "Charlie decided that he needed to inform everyone of your arrival, but don't feel bad; he did the same with me. So don't be surprised if someone that you have never met before comes up and starts talking to you."

"Great!" I rolled my eyes. "Just what I wanted; become a celebrity among the good people of Forks. My life's ambition has been realized!"

Bella laughed as she turned onto the main street. I stared at the town that really hadn't changed all that much since my last visit six years ago.

Bella turned into Newton's Sporting Goods and killed the engine.

"Okay," she checked her watch as we climbed out. "I get off at noon. Will you be okay until then?"

I shot her a look. "I think I'll survive, Bells."

She smiled and headed into the store. I stood next to the Beast in a moment of indecision before heading towards the itty-bitty park that I remembered being nearby.

Upon finding it, I sat down on one of the swings ― one that I distinctly remembered writing "Rylie's Swing" on at the tender age of 7 with a "borrowed" Swiss Army pocket knife the kid in the sand box was kind enough to give me ― and simply observed the sleepy little town.

I'd been correct in my assumption that nothing had really changed. Everything looked almost exactly the same since I'd last been here.

With a sigh, I pulled out my ever-present sketch pad from my bag and began to doodle. I don't know how long I sat there drawing whatever came to mind but, suddenly, a cheerful lilting voice broke through the morning calm and my thoughts.

"Rylie! You're finally here!!!" I turned and saw this girl who was about my height but more pixie-like. She was running (more like dancing actually) towards me with a big smile on her face, calling my name. I had no clue who she was.

"Rylie!" She gave me a big hug once she reached me. "I'm so glad that you're finally here!" She pulled back and looked me over with an assessing eye. "Bella told me that you were pretty, but she didn't mention what beautiful eyes you have. I've never seen eyes that blue before."

I blinked. "Um…thank you?"

"You're welcome!" She smiled brightly. "What do you think of Forks so far? I mean, I know you only got in last night, and that you've been here before, but―"

"Alice, please. You're scaring the little mouse." I turned and noticed Bella's boyfriend leaning against one of the swing-stand poles. When had he shown up?

"Um…I'm sorry, but I can't remember your name," I told him. "Edward something-or-other, right?"

His mouth quirked up a bit and he nodded. "Edward Cullen. And this is my sister, Alice." He motioned towards the pixie girl, who smiled broadly again.

"Sorry if I scared you, Rylie. Sometimes my excitement gets the better of me." She smiled good naturedly and I found myself smiling back.

"No problem." I sat back down on my swing as she took the one next to me. Edward continued to lean against the pole.

"So, little mouse, how are you today?" Edward asked as I began to pump my legs and the swing began to move.

"Why are you calling me that?" I asked as the swing flew higher. "I'll have you know, I am nothing like the little animal you keep referring to."

Edward chuckled. "Well, last night you were nibbling on your cookie like a mouse, and you're small like one." He grinned. "I think it's rather fitting."

I refrained from answering as I got the swing to reach its highest point and vaulted from it. "Banzai!"

I landed in a crouch several feet away and caught my balance before straightening and throwing my hands in the air.

"And the crowd goes wild! Whoo-hoo!" I turned and smiled at Edward and Alice, who were looking at me like I was nuts.

"Bella failed to mention you were crazy," Edward muttered, unaware that I could hear him.

I grinned at him. "I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it." I glanced at my watch and realized it was almost time for Bella to get off work.

I grabbed my messenger bag from where I'd set it down next to the swings and slipped my sketch pad into it.

"Did the two of you come to town to meet up with Bella after her shift?" I asked as they followed me out of the park.

"Yep." Alice answered as she slinked elbows with me. "We were going to ask if the two of you wanted to come over and watch movies tonight."

I shrugged. "I don't have an issue with it, and I doubt that Bella will."

"Yay!" Alice cheered as we entered the tiny sporting goods parking lot.

She and Edward hung back by a silver Volvo that I assumed was their's while I headed inside to get Bella.

"Welcome." A blonde guy who looked like he was Bella's age seemed to pop out of no-where.

I jumped back and hit my head on the door. Ouch.

"OMG! Spontaneous-generation DOES exist!!!" My eyes grew wide and I clutched my bag as if prepared to beat the guy over the head with it.

He raised an eyebrow in the classic what-the-heck expression, just as Bella came out from an aisle.

"Oh, hey Rylie. I thought I heard you yelling. Mike, this is my cousin, Rylie Héixwaa from Alaska. Rylie, this is Mike Newton."

I narrowed my eyes at him as I tentively reached my hand out for his. "Nice to meet you, Mike-who-spontaneously-generates."

He shook my hand and couldn't really seem to get away from me fast enough. I pouted. What was it with people thinking that I had some kind of disease?

Bella was fighting back a grin as we left and I kept shooting suspicious glares back at the store. 10 bucks says that there's some kind of freaky government experimentation going on in there and the store is, in fact, just a cover for it, and the lab is underneath the whole town, and everybody with the exception of a few are in on it and―

"Um…Rylie?" I jerked out of my thoughts and saw that Bella was giving me a worried look and Edward was frowning. What did I do to him? "Are you with us now?"

I grinned at Bella. "_Sí señorita!_" I gave her the thumbs up and she rolled her eyes.

"Are you sure that you don't mind going over to the Cullen's house tonight? We can do something else if you want…"

"Bella, it's cool. I want to meet you're boyfriend's family anyway. It's my job as protective younger cousin to make sure that you aren't hanging out with a bunch of psychopaths who are possibly in on the government funded experiment that's happening in Forks' underground."

Utter. Silence.

"Rrright. Whatever, Rylie." Bella smiled apologetically at Edward and Alice. "Sorry. She didn't take her medicine this morning."

I gasped. "How did you know?!"

Alice looked like she was trying to fight off a grin by this point, and Edward still had a frown on his face. Did this guy ever loosen up?!

I shrugged. "Anyways, now that everyone is done picking on me, what time do we need to be over?"

"Well, we could follow you guys so you could drop the truck off at your house, and then we'll all head over to ours'," Alice suggested.

"Sounds cool to me, yo." I glanced between Bella, Edward, and the Beast. "Hey, Bell-Bell, could I go with Edward and Alice can go with you?"

"Rylie, what are you scheming about now?" Bella gave me a suspicious look.

"Absolutely nothing." I widened my eyes to achieve that perfect baby-blue innocence look. "I just want to have a discussion with Edward."

Bella rolled her eyes and gave me a little shove towards the Beast. "You're going in the truck and that's final."

"Aww." I whined. "You take the fun out of life! I swear I wasn't gonna do anything…just threaten him within an inch of his life if he ever hurts you."

"Rylie!" Bella admonished. Alice and Edward laughed.

I rolled my eyes and climbed into the truck. Everybody was ganging up on me!


	5. Chapter 4 Enter the Beautiful People

**Chapter Four**

So, I ended up riding with Bella, with Edward and Alice in their Volvo behind us, and was thus able to think up my interrogation of Edward much more carefully. This was gonna be fun…*evil laugh* *cough*.

Anyways, we make it back to the house (finally! Bella's truck is SOOOOO slow!!!), and she and I pile out.

"I'm gonna run the keys into the house and leave a note for Charlie. You go ahead and get in the car." She said as she slammed her door shut.

"Right-os." I give her the two-fingered salute and waltz around to the driver's side backseat. It's a slightly awkward silence for a moment as I pull out my detective-style notepad and a pen.

"So, Edward, how old are you, exactly?"

"Um…17." I scribbled down the number.

"And how exactly did you come to meet my darling cousin Bella?"

"We had the same Biology class this last school year and she had the seat right next to mine. Is this going somewhere?"

"_I'm _asking the questions here, thank you very much." I scribbled again. "How did you and Bella become a couple?"

"Well, I saved her from some guys that were bugging her in Port Angeles, and we just kind of….became a couple." Scribble.

"I see." My next question was put off momentarily as Bella climbed into the backseat with me and noticed the looks on Edward's and Alice's faces. She immediately turned her gaze to me.

"Rylie, what kind of trouble are you causing now?" She asked as Edward backed out of the driveway and sped down the road at several miles over the natural speed limit.

"Hold that thought, Bell-Bell. Edward, what exactly are your intentions towards my cousin?" I raised an eyebrow at the back of his head, which he caught in the rearview mirror. His eyebrows shot up incredulously as Alice laughed and Bella looked mortified.

"Rylie!"

"Whaaat?!" I furrowed my brow at her. "It's a reasonable question. I need to make sure that he's a good match for you, Bella, and that he's not going to do something that will entail Charlie having to throw me into jail for a murder charge!"

Bella leaned her head against the window and groaned as Alice started laughing harder and Edward rolled his eyes and turned the steering wheel.

"We're here." He called into the backseat.

I turned to gape out the window as we pulled up a long driveway to one of the most beautiful houses I'd ever seen. *insert description*

Edward finally eased the Volvo to a stop and we all climbed out.

"W-o-w." I stared around me at the large front yard/driveway/parking area. "Nice place."

"Thanks," Alice caught hold of my arm as I came around the back of the car, looping hers through mine and leading me up to the front door. "It isn't much, but it's home."

My eyes bugged out as she opened the door and we stepped into the foyer. "Alice, that's something that you say about the little townhouses I lived in up in Alaska. This place is gorgeous! I love how open it is."

She released my arm, and I felt rather ridiculous as I stood there gazing around at their house but, what can I say? I'm an artist. I do weird stuffs like that.

"Rylie, it's impolite to stare." Bella shook my shoulder to get my attention. I jolted back to the real world and saw that Alice, Edward, Bella and myself had been joined by two other people, a man and a woman, all of whom were WAY to beautiful for my peace of mind, just like Edward and Alice.

_What is this, beautiful people land?_ I grumbled in my head even as I pasted a smile on my face.

"Hello. I'm Rylie Héixwaa. Nice to meet you….err, I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are." I stuck my hand out, feeling a bit like an idiot, but I was used to this feeling so oh well.

The woman smiled kindly and reached forward to give me a hug. I couldn't help but notice how cold she was, just like Edward and Alice. What was the deal? "It's very nice to finally meet you, Rylie. My name is Esmé. I'm Edward's, Alice's, Emmett's, Jasper's, and Rosalie's mother."

I grinned up at her (even she was taller than me!!!). "That's quite the resume, ma'am."

She laughed and it sounded like bells. "It is indeed. And please, call me Esmé. I'm afraid that Carlisle is at the hospital right now, but depending on how long you and Bella stay over, he'll probably show up before you leave."

The guy who'd come in with Esme nodded a greeting. "I'm Jasper."

I grinned, staying right where I was, my Rylie-sense telling me that he wasn't all that comfortable with people he didn't know. "That sounds like Casper, the Friendly Ghost! Nice to meet you. Love the hair, by the way."

Bella rolled her eyes and Alice and Edward snickered.

I allowed my eyes to wander as Edward began talking to his family about something or other, and had completely spaced out by the time everyone turned their attention to me, if the way that Bella was practically shouting in my ear was anyway to judge.

"Rylie! Come back to Earth please. Save the space trips for later, ok?" She waved her hand in front of my face.

"But I was just about to discover if there were men ― or women ― on Mars! You just ruined years of scientific research!"

"Right. Whatever, Rylie." Bella and the others began to walk off to the right, which I figured must be the living room.

I started to follow them, but got distracted with watching my shoelaces, and abruptly ran into something.

Eyes closed from the slightly jarring impact, I reached up with my right hand and began feeling the contours of the _it._ "Hmm….this feels like…..a neck, maybe? Then this would be a chin…..thereby I can deduce that I ran into a person!!"

I looked up…..and up….and up….and up a little more…..until I was staring into the face of one of the biggest dudes I'd ever seen.

"W-o-w." Was the first words that came out of my mouth as my eyes widened at the giant who was grinning down at little ol' me. "You're huge! This must be part of the freaky government-experimentation going on in this town; genetic engineering that effects the size of a person!" The last part was muttered more to myself then to Giganto, but I got the feeling that he heard anyway because his grin widened.

"Nice to meet you, Rylie. I'm Emmett." He patted my head and stepped back slightly, which made me happy because it decreased the stress on my neck. My happiness only lasted a short time, however, when he suddenly scooped me up as if I weighed less then a pound, and sat me on his shoulder the same way you would put someone in a chair.

"Eeep!" I clutched at his shoulders and ducked my head to avoid smacking it on the doorway as he stepped into the living room.

"Hey, Edward, why didn't you tell me that Rylie was even funnier than Bella, even if she doesn't blush as much?" Emmett, seeming to be completely unconcerned about the fact that I was holding onto his shoulders for dear life, cocked his head and raised his eye brow at Edward, who was sitting on one of the couches with Bella. Esme wasn't in the room, and Jasper and Alice were sitting on one of the other couches.

"Emmett, put the poor girl down, she looks like she's going to have a heart attack."

A voice broke through my panic long enough for my brain to register that there was a very pretty blonde girl sitting on the love seat. She looked a little annoyed, for whatever reason, and something in my gut told me that she wasn't too terribly pleased about the fact that Bella and I were there.

Emmett shrugged, causing me to clutch at his shirt tight enough that my knuckles turned white, and casually lifted me off and set me on my own two feet. He kept his hands on my shoulders until he was sure that I had my balance, before loping over to the love seat and (gracefully, I might add) plopping down next to the blonde, who, by process of elimination, I concluded must be Rosalie.

I chose to take a seat on the same couch as Bella, but not close enough to her that I'd be in the way of…yeah, let's not go there.

Once we were all settled, Edward started the movie. It was the 1941 classic, The Maltese Falcon, which I'd already seen at least a dozen times, so I pulled out my sketch pad and began sketching my movie companions.

I was so engrossed in my drawings, that I was surprised when somebody spoke in my ear.

"Hey, you're really good, Rylie."

I let out a squeak and flipped the drawing of Bella and Edward cuddling shut. Alice was hanging over the back of the couch staring intently at the sketchpad; the movie was apparently over.

"Open it back up!!" She whined playfully. "I want to see!"

I shook my head and blushed slightly. "They really aren't that good."

"Oh, bolognese!" She grinned, but thankfully gave up trying to tug the sketchpad from me. "Those were fantastic! You're really talented."

I blushed even more and mumbled something indiscernible. Emmett let out a loud, booming laugh.

"She's even funnier than Bella when she blushes!! Esmé, can I keep her?!"

I gave Emmett a disgruntled look before turning to notice that Esmé was sitting on the couch that Alice had been occupying with Jasper, looking amused in an indulgent way. "No, Emmett, you cannot keep Rylie. But I'm sure Bella wouldn't mind if you spent some time with her."

"But I promise to take care of her and feed her and let her out and everything!" He pouted playfully, almost like a child who was turning on the puppy-pout to get his way.

I threw a pillow at his head. "I am not a pet, thank you very much. Besides, that puppy-pout is absolutely pathetic! You'll never get your way with such a pathetic excuse for a pout."

Edward raised an eyebrow from the other end of the couch. "And you can?"

"Absolutely!" I grinned cheekily at him. "Wanna see how a master does it?"

Bella groaned and leaned her head against Edward's chest. "Edward, don't. She'll have you all wrapped around her little finger before you can say 'pathetic'."

"Shhh!! Bella, don't let them in on my secret plan!!" I nudged her with my foot.

Alice halted our argument before it really even started by changing the subject.

"Carlisle's coming."

Not even a second after the words left her mouth, a man's voice spoke up from the entrance to the living room. "Hello everyone." I turned to look over the couch and wanted to roll my eyes again. Even their _father_ was ridiculously good looking and seemed really young! What the heck was going on?!

"Hello, dear." Emsé glided over to greet her husband. "We have a guest."

"I can see that." He smiled politely in my direction. "Hello, Rylie. Nice to have a face to put with the name."

I grinned and waved. "Likewise, Dr. Cullen."

"Carlisle, please."

Everyone began to chat with eachother after that, allowing me to sit quietly and observe them without being observed myself. (I swear, I'm not a stalker!) They had a family-dynamic unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and…._Mm-ma-Mm mara/Mm-ma-mm/Ma-ma-a. Taking pictures with honeys/Spending mo-mo-money/If you want it so badly/Then why don't you say so, lady._

I jumped and let out a squeak as something vibrated in my pocket. Everyone looked at me strangely as I struggled to remove my cell phone from my jeans

I flipped the phone open once it was free. "Hello, you've contacted somebody famous. What can you do for me?"

"Rylie? It's Charlie. You and Bella need to come home now. I'm hungry."

I made a moue at the phone. "Jeez, Charlie. You're so lazy. Alright, alright, we're coming." I hung up the phone and tried to get Bella's attention. "Bella. Bella? Bella! BELLA!" I threw the phone at Bella. Before it made contact with her head, a hand whipped out almost faster than I could see it, and caught my phone in mid-air.

Edward held it clasped in his fist and did not look happy.

"Whoa. That was amazing!" Bella glared at me.

"What is your problem, Rylie?!"

"I was feeling attention deprived. " Bella rolled her eyes and looked embarrassed. I stood up, pretending to be indignant. "If you're going to be like that, I'm leaving, Bella!"

"Why?!"

"Charlie says he's hungry." I headed towards the door, thanking Esmé and the others for a nice time.

"Buddy! You can't leave yet!" Emmett followed me to the front door as I pulled my shoes on. I gaped up (and up) at him.

"Um…when did I become your buddy?"

"When you walked through the door." He grinned.

"Yeahuh. Ok, um…I'll be back soon?"

"Righteous!" He gave me a big bear hug just as Bella and Edward came out of the living room.

"Ack!! My ribs!!! My lungs! My spleen!!"

"Emmett, put Rylie down. I need to get her back to Charlie's house with minimal damage." Edward was smirking when Emmett set me down.

I took a few deep breaths once I could breathe again and Edward ushered me and Bella out to his Volvo. Clearly, my life in Forks was going to be far from dull.


	6. Chapter 5 Sharing Secrets

Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

The next few weeks seemed to go by at a lightening fast pace, and before I could really get my thoughts compiled, there was a month left before school began.

I spent most of my summer hanging out with Edward's family, since they were really the only people I knew. They'd pretty much become the family that I'd never really had growing up, with Carlisle and Esme kinda sorta becoming a combination of an aunt and uncle/mom and dad, Emmett the older brother that I'd never had (and sometimes never really wanted, to be completely honest), Alice the fun older sister who would do make up with me and help in the planning of pranks, Jasper the sort-of aloof older cousin who really does care but doesn't show it that often, and Rosalie…well, she was just kind of a snob the whole summer.

Despite how close I'd become to everyone, I couldn't shake the feeling that they were keeping something big from me. I did find out, but it wasn't in a way that anybody was expecting.

I was updating my MySpace page one night, and happened to notice that my camera wasn't on my desk. After some intense searching and freaking out, I remembered that I'd loaned it to Bella the other day so she could take photos (duh, what else do you do with a camera). I glanced at the clock to check the time. 10:00 p.m. _Surely she's still awake at this hour_, I thought as I tiptoed down the hall to her room.Just in case, though, I very quietly opened the door and tried to creep into the room, grab the camera from her desk (where I remembered she'd placed it) and get out with absolutely no one the wiser.

Unfortunately, Fate was conspiring against me and, crazy old bat that she is, I stumbled in the dark over what I believe was a towel. Then again, it was more than likely my own two feet.

"Ouch! Man, that's gonna leave a bruise!" I grumbled, rubbing my side as I groped for the wall so I could climb to my feet. Abruptly, a light flipped on, temporarily blinding me. "Ack! My eyes! I've been blinded!! I'll never see again!"

"Rylie? What in the world are you doing in my room?!" The spots finally went away and my vision cleared, allowing me to see Bella sitting up in her bed….with Edward sitting next to her.

"Holy Moses on a pogo stick!" I quickly shut my eyes and turned around, only to bang into the wall. "Bella, what is he doing here?! Both of you put some clothes on!"

I fumbled around with my eyes shut until I found a doorknob. I opened the door and let myself out of the room.

"Um…Rylie, that's the closet." Bella's voice was slightly muffled, but I could still hear the exasperation in her tone.

I fumbled in the dark for the light switch and saw that it was, in fact, Bella's closet.

"This is fine, Bella. It truly is a lovely closet….hey! I love this shirt. I'm gonna borrow this later, ok?"

"Rylie, will you please come out of the closet so I can talk to you about what Edward's doing over here?"

"No no no. I'll just stay in here until the two of you are done with….you know what, never mind. I'm just gonna stay here. OMG! I'm under attack! A sock is trying to attack me!! Ack! Back! Back you foul smelly piece of footwear!"

Bella let out a sigh and I heard her talking to Edward quietly.

Quickly, I ducked behind some of her clothes that where hanging up and pretty much covered me completely moments before Edward opened the door.

"Rylie, come out so we can talk."

"No, no!" I stuck my hand out between the clothes. "You two just run along now. I'm just going to be in here and enjoy Bella's clothes."

Edward sighed and took hold of my hand in his cold one, pulling me out from behind the clothes and out of the closet.

"Ack!" I squeezed my eyes shut. "Are you two decent?"

"Rylie, we've had our clothes on this entire time. Now open your eyes and please listen!"

Hesitantly, I opened one eye a bit, and then the other. Both of them were sitting on the bed, looking annoyed, but fully clothed.

"Phew! Thanks for putting some clothes on you guys. Now, Edward, Bella, I want the two of you to know that, while I do not support your decision, I accept the fact that teenagers have certain….feelings, and I just hope that the two of you are being safe."

Bella buried her face in her pillow and let out a groan. "Rylie, the last person I need to have a talk like this from is you. It's bad enough putting up with it from Renee and Charlie, let alone you."

I shuddered. "Okay, that is disgusting and uncalled for. But if you don't want me to think that's what you were doing, then tell me what in the world is going on! And how in the heck did you," I pointed at Edward, "get here without a car?! 'Cause there's none in the driveway!" It seemed like every question that I'd been keeping back over the summer burst out of me. "Why is your family so cold, as in to the touch? Why are you all so friggin' good looking? What the heck is going on?! And don't feed me the line of 'there's nothing going on, you're just being ridiculous', because I know that there's more going on than I'm being told."

Bella sighed and looked at Edward imploringly.

He shook his head. "We can't."

"Please, Edward! She'll probably end up figuring it out sooner or later, and wouldn't it be better to just tell her now? Please!" Bella was practically on her knees begging him.

I frowned and crossed my arms. "Tell. Me. What?! Bella, even if he says not to, you had better explain to me here in the next few seconds before every dirty little secret you have becomes public knowledge."

Bella, if at all possible, became even paler than normal. "Edward, please!"

He deliberated for a moment before sighing and nodding his head.

She let out a breath and kissed his cheek. "Thank you." Then she turned back to me. "Okay Rylie, here's the deal….."

An hour later, Bella finished and looked at me, as though expecting me to become a raving lunatic.

"Rylie? Do you have any other questions?"

I was silent for a moment, my mouth open wide in shock, before coming to my senses.

"Everything makes _so_ much more sense now! Oh, my God! Why the heck didn't I put it all together before?!"

I jumped to my feet and began pacing back and forth. Now it was Bella and Edward's turn to be shocked.

"Rylie, do you understand what Bella just told you? That me and my family are vampires?" Edward, apparently, thought that I was slow and deaf.

"Of course I understood, Edward! Jeez, I'm not that retarded." I rolled my eyes. "But it does make the most sense, now that I think about it."

"Makes the most sense?" Bella asked weakly.

"Yes." I began to tick numbers off on my fingers. "There's the fact that the Cullens' skin is colder than ice, which is so not normal, the fact that I've only ever seen them when the sun is not out, and the fact that they act just like some people that I met up in Alaska"

"Wait a second; you've met people like my family in Alaska?" Edward seemed shocked by this.

"Mm-hmm." I nodded as I plopped back down on Bella's desk chair and tucked my hair behind my ears. "One of my mom's boyfriends who wasn't half bad took us up to Denali when I was 13. There was this group of people who had similar characteristics that you do, and, somehow, I ended up finding their secret and becoming friends with them." I furrowed my brow in concentration. "One of them was a real pain. Irene? Ireland?"

"Irina?" Edward asked sharply.

"Yeah. That was her name." I pursed my lips. "I didn't really care for her, but her sister, Tanya, was really nice."

Something else occurred to me all of a sudden. "Hey, Edward, you read minds, right?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"So, that means that you know every little thought that goes through my head?!" I clutched my head in horror.

He frowned again. "Unfortunately― or fortunately, depending on how you look at it― I can't. Like Bella, I can't seem to really get inside your mind for one reason or another, although I get a few snippets from you that I don't get from her. I can't seem to come up with an explanation for it."

"Phew. That's a relief." I grinned and hugged my knees to my chest. "After all, if you were able to read every one of my thoughts, I'd never be able to pull any excellent pranks around here to liven things up."

They both just stared at me for a moment and then Edward began to chuckle and reached over to ruffle my hair. "Welcome to the family, Rylie."

I grinned at him. "Thank you. I think I might just hang out for awhile."


	7. Chapter 6 Fun, Games, and Rubber Fish

**Sarcasm: THANK YOU ONE AND ALL FOR BEING SOOOO PATIENT! I KNOW THAT I TOOK A LONG TIME GETTING THIS ONE OUT AND FOR THAT I APPOLOGIZE PROFUSELY!! Anyways, thanks for all the reveiws of previous chapters, and I hope you all like this one. I'm working on numero 7 as we speak...or as I type this, which ever way you want to look at it. :) Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I only own Rylie and the majority of the plot (later on this will be following closer to New Moon/Eclipse, which I don't own).**

Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

"En guard!" I launched at Emmett and made a stab at his stomach, missing by inches as he side stepped and parried.

"Hahaha! You'll never best me, Rylie! I am a master swordsman!" He grinned and swiped at where my head would've been if I hadn't ducked. I clambered up onto a rock, parrying his blows.

"Master swordsman you may be, but I am THE master with this particular weapon. Admit defeat, villain!" I cried as I jumped down from my rock and swung at his head.

I almost had him defeated and begging for mercy when I tripped….over my own two feet.

I felt the tip of Emmett's weapon press against my throat. "Do you admit defeat, Rylie?"

I glanced up and glared at him. "I admit defeat THIS time, Emmett. Next time, I will get my revenge. Have no doubt about that."

He laughed his booming laugh and pulled me to my feet.

Just then, I saw Edward and Bella walking towards us from the garage.

"Rylie, what in the world did you do this time?" Bella's eyebrows rose nearly to her hairline as she took in my sweating, disheveled, mud-covered appearance.

"Hey, Bells." I grinned and saluted her and Edward with my weapon.

"Rylie, is that a….rubber fish?" Edward looked as if he wasn't sure to laugh or not.

"It is indeedy." I took Emmett's and held them out for inspection. "I found them at a flea market that Emmett and Alice took me to. They were only fifty cents each! Can you believe it!" I grinned. "I'll probably never use them again, but the two of you just missed an epic battle between me and Emmett. He was just about to surrender when I accidentally tripped over my own feet. Of course, it was all so he'd feel better about himself." I grinned over at Emmett, who rolled his eyes and gave me a "_gentle_" shove. Well, gentle by Emmett/vampire standards.

"Whatever, Rylie." Emmett apparently had some flippant reply on the tip of his tongue, which would cause the two of us to start bickering like siblings, but he was interrupted when Alice came dancing over to our little group, followed by Jasper.

"Who's up for a game tonight?" She practically sang, bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement.

I noticed that Edward's and Emmett's eyes mirrored the excitement in Alice and Jasper's.

"Absolutely!" Emmett immediately took off towards the house, I assumed, considering he was gone faster that I could track.

Wide-eyed, I turned to look at Bella and Edward, who were talking together quietly. "Um…could someone give me an explanation as to what everyone is so excited about?"

"We're gonna go play baseball tonight!" Alice was practically jumping up and down while clapping her hands with excitement.

I began to share in her excitement.

"Sounds like fun! Can I play too?"

"NO!" I was almost blown backwards from the force of the negative answer sent by Bella and Edward.

I began to pretend to tear up. "Jeez, if you didn't want me to play, all you had to do was say something. I know when I'm not wanted. I'll just go back to Charlie's house, and go into my dark little corner of sadness, and stay there forever and ever and ever, and then, when I'm old and gray and I'm still in my corner, you can all feel terrible for how you treated me, and-" Edward cut me off by giving me a _little_ shove. Granted, it was just a hand touched to my shoulder, but I still fell down because of it. Apparently, I'd become the vampiric-shoving bag or something like that.

"Rylie, you can't play because you're human, we're vampires, and ergo you'd get hurt. But that doesn't mean you can't come."

"Yeah!" Emmett was back suddenly. "You could be the little mascot guy that dances around."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Was that supposed to be some wisecrack about my height, or do you really think I should be the mascot?"

He grinned. "I plead the Fifth."

"You can't plead the Fifth! Those rules don't apply here!"

"Why not?" He was enjoying this far too much for my health.

"Because I said they don't, that's why."

Before we could really get into it, Alice stepped in-between us. "Now, now, children, play nice."

I crossed my arms and stuck my tongue out at Emmett, who grinned and ruffled my hair.

"Okay Alice, what time?" Edward asked as he wrapped an arm around Bella's waist.

"I think it's gonna start sometime around 7:30, 8:00. Meet at the place at 7:25."

Edward nodded and began to head towards his car. "Rylie, come on. I'm going to take you and Bella home so the two of you can spend a little time with Charlie before the game tonight."

"Do you want me to roll over and play fetch as well?" I muttered as I rolled my eyes and grabbed my fish, stuffing the things into my bag and hurrying after the two lovebirds.

When Edward dropped us off, I scrambled out of the car as fast as I could, hearing him telling Bella that he would pick us up at 7:00, followed by a period of silence and then the sound of a car door shutting and Bella stumbling up the drive.

We spent a pleasant evening in with Charlie, who wasn't too perturbed that we were gonna go "play" baseball with the Cullens: 1) because he knew that I'd play just about any sport, even if I'd never played it before, and 2) there was a game on tonight.

I'd just come down the stairs after slipping into a gray sweatshirt under an old blue football jersey when Edward knocked on the door. Glancing at my watch, I rolled my eyes as Bella practically wrenched the door off its hinges. 7:00 on the dot.

Edward exchanged a few strained pleasantries with Charlie as he and Bella waited for me to put my shoes on.

"I want the two you home no later than 11:00, alright?" Charlie tore his attention away from the game on TV long enough to give us that order before we stepped on to the porch.

My eyes widened at the sight of the Jeep parked out front.

"Oh, my goodness."

insert description of Emmett's jeep

Edward and Bella chuckled at my expression as we walked up to the monster Jeep. As Edward hoisted Bella inside, I opened the back door with some difficulty and eyed the distance between the ground and my seat. The wheels of the Jeep came up to Bella's waist, which meant I was lucky if my head cleared the top.

I was about to make a leap for it when Edward suddenly gripped me around the waist and lifted me into the vehicle.

"Remind me to bring a step ladder next time," I grinned as he helped fasten my harness, almost like I was a child in a carseat and I told him as much, making him roll his eyes. I'd been in a 4x4ing truck a few times before, but the harnesses were still a pain in the backside to deal with.

He smirked as he fastened the last strap. "I'll make sure there's one for you and Bella."

After he had both me and Bella strapped in and was sitting in his seat, he turned the ignition and the Jeep roared to life. Soon we were off, speeding down the highway and then on a back road that definitely wasn't used often. Bella was bouncing up and down in her seat and looking like she was hating the ride. I, however, was having the time of my life.

In no time we pulled into one of those camping/hiking parking areas, and clambered out of the jeep.

"Okay, Rylie, here's how this is gonna work." Edward said once we were all standing outside. "I'm gonna run Bella up to the clearing, and then I'll be back for you. Just wait in the jeep until I get back."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What if I have to use the bathroom, and while I'm outside of the jeep for those few minutes I get eaten by a bear, and when you come back all you'll find are my munched on remains, and then you'll have to tell Bella, who will be so heartbroken that she'll pine away forever and―"

"Rylie, just wait in the jeep." Edward seemed to be at the end of his supposedly unending patience.

I rolled my eyes and allowed myself to be hoisted into the jeep. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you."

I blinked and they were gone, Edward's vampire-speed making them disappear.

I sighed and leaned back in the seat, humming to myself to fill the silence of the Jeep. It was moments like these that I really hated, when I was alone and the silence seemed deafening, especially since I didn't have anything to occupy myself with.

So naturally, just as I was really starting to work up a good panic, someone knocked on the Jeep, causing me to jump and scream.

When I whirled around to look out the window, I saw Emmett clutching his sides, laughing hysterically. I frowned and opened the door.

"Shut up, Emmett. It was your fault that I screamed." I crossed my arms and frowned at him as he lifted me out of the Jeep and swung me onto his back.

"I'm sorry, Rylie." He didn't sound sorry at all. "But the…the look on your face…." He began to chuckle. "Hold on tight. You may want to close your eyes for this one."

And then we were off.

**Sarcasm: Just so everybody doesn't get confused, no this is NOT going to be an Emmett/OC pairing. Emmett and Rylie are just best friends (he calls her his "little buddy") and are practically like siblings. Just making sure that this was clear. :) PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	8. Chapter 7 School Daze

Sarcasm: Hey, just wanted to apologize in advance about this chapter. I didn't really like how it ended, but it was the best I could do cuz i was anxious to get it out. the next one will be better. please review!

Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven **

The remaining weeks of summer after the Cullens' amazing baseball game (I'd never, ever ever ever seen anything like it!) seemed to go by really swiftly. For the most part, I spent time hanging out with Bella and the Cullens, or just spending the day walking through Forks, trying to see if I could meet anybody that was going into their sophomore year at the high school. My attempts were in vain and before I knew it, Edward was driving me and Bella to school on the first day.

I fiddled with the zipper on my new hoodie and looked down at my outfit: dark-wash jeans with a purple tanktop emblazoned with pandas, a black hoodie. I had all my new supplies and a new bag and all the other stuff most people have when they start out a school year. I was really nervous though, and not looking forward to starting out as the new kid.

"…and don't forget that you can find me if you run into trouble." Bella had been going off on the same subject for the past several days, worrying like crazy about me starting school like a mother hen.

I rolled my eyes and glared at the back of her head, beyond annoyed.

"Bella, for the last frickin' time, _I'll be fine_! I've started new schools before and haven't been worse for wear because of it. Chill. Out. Besides, it's your senior year. You're supposed to enjoy it, not be worrying about your younger sophomore cousin, who is more than capable of taking care of herself."

Edward chuckled slightly and took hold of Bella's hand as he turned into the parking lot.

"I think, sweetheart, it would be best that you leave her alone about it. Otherwise, I'm afraid that I'll have to have the front seat redone for all the holes your cousin is boring into the back of it." He kissed her hand, winking at me, and I rolled my eyes.

Edward slid the Volvo neatly into a parking spot and got out, moving quickly around to the passenger side to open Bella's door.

I sat for a moment, taking deep calming breaths, mustering my courage before opening my own door and sliding out.

The school was about the same size as the one I'd attended in Alaska, which is to say, it didn't appear to be all that big.

"I thought that you weren't worried." Edward snickered at the look I shot him.

"I'm not worried." I had been shooting for a snooty tone, but it came out as little more than a normal tone that went up an octave at the end. Curse nervous habits.

I sighed and slung my bag over my shoulder, pulling my hood over my face and heading towards the school.

"Rylie, do you want me and Edward to walk you to your class?" Bella was still mother-henning me and I shot her my most threatening glare.

"Bella, if you don't stop asking me questions pertaining to that subject, I swear to God, I'll spill all your dirty secrets from when we were to kids to Edward and then curse you with a giant zit in the middle of your forehead! Have you still not learned that I'm not someone to be trifle with?"

Bella got, if at all possible, even paler. "Okay, no more playing mother hen. Got it."

Edward laughed and began to steer her towards their class.

"We'll see you after school, if not at lunch," he called over his shoulder.

I gave them a wave and pulled my schedule out of my bag.

"_Okay,"_ I thought, frowning at it. "_This shouldn't be too difficult. First PreCalc with Miles, then World History with Higgins — damn, it's not advanced placement — after that English with Michaels, then lunch, Spanish, Science — yuck— and Gym last."_

I looked up from my schedule and looked around, trying to figure out where exactly to go, when somebody tapped me on my shoulder.

"Um…excuse me, but you look a little lost."

I turned and looked up, and up, and up some more until I was looking the guy in the eye. He seemed to be a giant by my standards, maybe a few inches shorter than Emmett, with olive skin, jade green eyes, and stylishly messy copper-red hair.

"_W-o-w," _I thought, staring into his bright green eyes. "_If I'd known that all the guys in Forks were this hot, I would've come down here sooner." _Outside of my head, I smiled and said, "Do I look that confused?"

He grinned and stuck out his hand.

"Nick Carlson. You must be Rylie Swan."

I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously as I shook his hand.

"Are you some kind of sick stalker? I'll have you know, my uncle is the police chief."

"Er…" he seemed taken aback.

I laughed and smiled at him. "Dude, I'm just joshin' ya. Yeah, I'm Rylie. Nice to meet you, Nick."

He smiled again, and the expression made him seem pretty attractive. "So, you want some help finding your classes?"

"That would be great, actually." I smiled and handed him my schedule, gazing around while he inspected it.

"Hey, whaddya know? We have the same second, fourth, and sixth hours." He grinned at me. "And my first hour is right next to yours. How the hell did you manage to get into a PreCalc class as a sophomore?" He began to steer me in the right direction, and I only allowed him to do so because I had no idea where I was. Normally, I _hate_ guys who are like that, thinking that a girl needs to be lead everywhere.

I shrugged. "Just happened to be really good in my classes back home, so they moved me up to the more advanced ones."

He rolled his eyes. "Sweetheart, nobody is just _really good _in freshmen classes to be able to take PreCalc as a sophomore."

My eyes narrowed at the "sweetheart" bit, but I brushed it off. And I was a little offended that he seemed to think that it was that weird that I was in such an advanced math class. Can I help it if I made sure to sign up for math courses the summer before 7th grade so I could get a jump start on high school? Wait…

Soon, we were in front of the class room and Nick walked off with a wave, promising to wait for me after class. If it weren't for the fact that I really needed a guide, I'd tell him to take a hike. Oh, well.

Needless to say, I got some funny looks from EVERYBODY when my name was called. I knew that Charlie had told pretty much the entire town that I was arriving, and they all knew that I was a sophomore, not to mention that every single one of them was a junior, which really made me stand out even more. To cope, I shrunk down in my seat, trying to get the ground to open up and swallow me whole.

Somehow, I managed to get through my classes to lunch, which revealed a new set of problems. Think about it: being the new kid at the beginning of a new year at a new school in a small town where your peers have grown up with eachother since being in diapers. That means that you have no real friends to speak of, and have to suffer through lunches alone until some kind soul takes pity upon your predicament and joins you at the "loner" table, which then ushers in a plethora of friends.

This was how I found myself, sitting at the "loner" table with my carefully prepared sack lunch, feeling as if I was on display as it seemed that _everyone_ in the freakin' cafeteria was staring at me, like I had an snail's eyeball growing out of the top of my skull. Which last time I checked, was either non-existent, or just visible to everyone but me.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" A feminine voice suddenly broke me out of my self-pity and I glanced up, astonished to see that someone was actually talking to me. The girl was taller than I was (not that that should come as any surprise; most people are taller than me 5'3"), had long, curly copper red hair, silver eyes, and was smiling brightly.

"Uh…no, not at all." I smiled nervously as she sat down with her tray.

"Hi, I'm Karen Adams. You're the Chief's niece, right?" I got the feeling that she wasn't trying to be rude, simply stating a fact.

"Yupp, that's me the infamous Rylie Héixwaa." I grinned at her. "Nice to meet you."

"Right back at cha." She took a bite of pizza and cocked her head. "Héixwaa is an interesting last name. What's its origin? It almost sounds Native."

"It is, actually." I took a bite of sandwich. "It's Tlinget, as in from Southeast Alaska. My biological father is from a tribe in that area." **(A/N: I actually did research on the Tlinget language, and this is in fact a word. it means "magic". whether or not it is an actual last name, I couldn't begin to tell you, but it is an important element to the story and will make sense later.)** 

"Wow, that's so cool! Do you actually speak the language?" Karen genuinely looked interested.

I laughed nervously. "Bits and pieces. I didn't really grow up with my dad's family, and he beat feet when I was 5, almost six years old, but there was this little old lady who lived on my street with her grandson, and she did speak the language, so I learned a bit from her." I took another bite of my sandwich. "So have you always lived in Forks?"

"Pretty much. My parents met at UW and my mom was from here. Dad moved back here with her when they graduated."

I found that Karen was extremely easy to talk to, and by the end of lunch I had my first friend. She politely offered to show me to my next class, which we shared, which I thanked her for profusely after Nick had shown up to "help me out".

We ended up having the last three classes together, and by the end of the day had exchanged hotmail addresses. When I climbed into the back of Edward's Volvo at the end of the day, I was feeling much better about life than when I had climbed in that morning.

"How was your first day, Rylie?" Bella asked as we pulled out of the parking lot.

"It was alright," I smiled. "I made my first friend, and already ran into a guy that I dislike."

"Really? Who?" Edward glanced casually into the rearview mirror at me.

"I don't think you'd know him. He's a sophomore. Nick Carlson?"

"Nope, don't know him."

We talked about the day the rest of the way home, and as we pulled into the driveway, I thought that this year wasn't going to be as bad as I'd first thought.


	9. Chapter 8 Bella's Birthday

Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

The weeks went by really quickly and, next thing I knew, it was Bella's 18th birthday. She'd told everyone that she absolutely did not want anything as far as gifts went, and, naturally, nobody listened to her. She'd given Edward the rule that he couldn't spend a dime on her gift, but I knew that he got her something anyways. Alice planned this extravagant party for her that night, and had given me all the plans for it.

"It's going to be fantastic!" She'd told me as she handed me a friggin handbook on what the party was going to entail.

Which is why I couldn't hold in my chuckle when Bella came downstairs that morning, looking exceptionally irritated. Well, she was until she saw Charlie, then she had to put up the pretense of being happy. I waited until we were in the truck to say anything.

"Good morning, cousin mine!" I smiled as we climbed in. "You look marvelously pissy this morning. Now, I know that you don't wish to hear the words _Happy Birthday!_ but I'm afraid that I just said them, so you'll have to deal with it."

She didn't say anything and was really silent as we drove to the school. I frowned. Normally, she would at least _attempt _to put up with my teasing.

"Bella, what is eating you? I mean, I know that you're upset because you're 18 and in your mind that means that you're older than Edward, but…"

"Rylie, please don't say anything else about that. It's bad enough that I had a dream that I was Grandma Marie and Edward was still wishing me a happy birthday." We pulled into the parking lot by this point and she took a few deep breaths.

When she had the beast parked carefully, I reached over and took her hand in mine. The contrast between my olive skin and her porcelain was startling. "Hey, it'll all work out in the end. Don't worry about it."

She gave me a tremulous smile and we exited the vehicle. As soon as her eyes landed on Edward, she noticeably (to me at least) relaxed and chilled out.

We made our way over to them, and I noticed that Bella frowned when she saw Alice skipping towards us. Even I'd warned Alice not to make a huge production out of Bella's birthday, and naturally she didn't listen.

"Happy birthday, Bella!" She sang.

Bella immediately shushed her and was ignored as Alice began talking about opening presents and other such birthday activities. I tuned out the conversation by going over my list of homework from the night before, double checking that I did in fact get the whole thing done.

I came back into the conversation sometime around the point when Alice was telling Bella that they could do things the easy way or the hard way, and Edward jumping in to save Bella from going to her party…psyche!

"I'll bring her over around seven. That'll give you more time to set up."

Alice laughed. "Sounds good. See you tonight, Bella. It'll be fun, you'll see. Rylie, are you still coming over with me tonight to help out?"

"Yup. I'll meet you by the Volvo after school." I waved to her as she walked off, only to find myself being glared at by the ferocious Bella-sorus. I grinned and began to walk off. "Well, would you look at the time, I gotta get to class. Bye Edward, bye Bella. Smooches!"

"Traitor!" She yelled after me. I waved over my shoulder.

At lunch later on, Karen and I were sitting with a couple other people, included but having our own conversation. In the past few weeks I'd made quite a few friends, and had already been asked out a few times, mostly by Nick. One would think that the jerk would get the idea and go away after the first rejection, but sadly, this wasn't the case.

"So, there's going to be a bit of a party next weekend," Karen said around a mouthful of burrito. "We're going to the beach in La Push, and I was told to invite as many people as I wanted. Wanna come? We could carpool."

I grinned. "Sounds righteous. I'm pretty sure that Charlie won't mind if I go, but I'll double check. Have you had your license for the required six months already?" I raised an eyebrow at her, pretending to look suspicious.

She laughed. "Oh, I'm not driving. Trent is borrowing his mom's suburban (**A/N: no, this is not Mike's suburban. all of Rylie's friends are OCs)** and is gonna drive some of the people who can't drive themselves down. It's all on the up and up."

I shrugged. "Then there shouldn't be a problem."

Other than that, lunch was pretty uneventful, with the exception of watching some guy wind up with a pizza on his head ― do not ask me how it happened, 'cause I had no idea, but it was funny nonetheless.

When final bell rang, I pushed my way through the crowd headed for the parking lot. God, I _hate_ being short. You have to practically elbow people in painful areas to really get anywhere, especially if you get stuck behind some football or basketball players.

Eventually, I made it out to the parking lot, and to the Cullen's Volvo, where Alice was waiting for me.

"Hi!" She sang. "You look like a bright little ray of sunshine."

"Stupid big people," I muttered. "Always getting in the way."

She laughed and sped out of the parking lot. I barely had time to wave bye to Bella and Edward where they stood in front of the truck.

"Jeez, Alice! What the heck is the rush about? We have until 7 o'clock to get the house ready." I was grasping the "oh, shit" handle **(A/N: you know, the handle that's above the door for passengers to grab onto in a panic?)** for dear life.

"Well, you still have to do your homework before the party, so I might as well drive fast so you can do it before we have to decorate."

"I did the majority of it during my classes and lunch, and what's left will be a breeze. Just _please _don't begin without me."

Naturally, we made it to the Cullen house within minutes of leaving the school. Alice hustled me inside and plopped me down at the kitchen table where I was told to "stay seated until you my homework is was done".

The house was really quiet, and the silence disturbed me to the point that the homework that would normally take me a half hour, forty-five minutes ended up taking me an hour and a half to complete.

I leaned back in my chair after finally closing my textbook and closed my eyes. Unfortunately, I was unable to banish the visions of mathematical formulas from my brain, and so opened my eyes. Only to find a pair of golden eyes mere inches from mine.

"Aaaahhhhh!!" I threw myself backwards in my chair, causing it to topple over and spill me out onto the floor of the Cullen's kitchen.

When the birdies were no longer spinning around my head, I picked myself up from the floor and glared at the cause of my bodily injury. Imagine my surprise when I saw Emmett clutching his sides from laughing.

"Emmett! You jerk! Can't you just say, 'hi how's it going' like a normal person?! Wait, why aren't you in Africa with Rose? I thought that's where the two of you had run off too."

Emmett regained control of himself and hauled me to my feet. "We were, but decided that we couldn't miss out on Bella's 18th birthday. The last birthday any of us celebrated was mine back in 1935 and she and I thought it might be fun to take part in the festivities again."

I knew he was stretching the truth here quite a bit; Emmett may have wanted to celebrate Bella's birthday, but sure as hell Rosalie probably wanted nothing to do with it. I didn't correct him and simply pasted a smile on my face.

"Well, it's good to see you again, ya big lug." I gave him a one arm hug before pulling away and packing up my school stuff.

When everything of mine was cleaned up, I walked into the living room to find Alice. She was putting the final touches on a table that was loaded up with silver-wrapped presents and crystal bowls of roses. It was all very flamboyant and I knew that Bella was going to be agitated. Awesome.

"Aww, Alice! You didn't leave anything else for me to do." I pouted as she adjusted one of the bowls.

"I'm sorry, Rylie," she got the bowl just how she wanted it and came over to throw her arm over my shoulders. "But you were just taking too long and now we have some time to just hang out with everyone. You like hanging out, right?"

I rolled my eyes and heaved a sigh. "Yeah, whatever. But I expect compensation in the form of snackage."

Alice grinned and pulled me over to sit down in front of the TV just as Emmett walked out of the kitchen and handed me a bag of chips. The three of us settled in to watch a movie until it was time for the party.

Emmett got first pick and chose some hokey, stupid humor movie that nearly had me comatose. When it was finally over, Alice jumped from her seat and switched the disk so fast, I didn't even have time to ask what we were watching.

When the opening music and clips began, I couldn't resist rolling my eyes. Alice chose_ Charmed – Season 3_. Ugh, spare me.

I didn't say anything about Alice's choice in film for the longest time, until finally I couldn't take another second of it.

"Oh, my God! Have you ever seen anything more ridiculous?!" I exclaimed as the three sisters cast yet another demon to back to Hell and a bunch of computer generated lights flashed all over the screen.

Emmett and Alice gave me a weird look. "What in the world are you talking about?"

"This show! The whole _'golden light shot from her fingertips' _thing? What a load of malarkey!"

Alice and Emmett glanced back and forth between each other, and then I realized what I'd just said to them. _Fudge monkeys!_

Apparently, though, there is a God, because just at that moment, we heard the groaning growl of the Beast's engine pull into the driveway.

"They're here!" Alice twirled in excitement and danced towards the front door. Emmett followed her and I stayed behind to shut off the TV and take my chip bag back into the kitchen.

When I came back out, Bella was looking at Alice's decorating job with nothing short of what can only be described as pure horror. Edward wrapped his arm around her waist encouragingly as Esme gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead, and Carlisle put his arm around her shoulders.

"Sorry about all this, Bella," he stage-whispered. "We couldn't rein Alice in."

Emmett exchanged some crack about how Bella was just as red faced as ever before saying something about stepping out for a second― by which he meant going out to Bella's truck to install a new stereo.

"Time to open the presents," Alice declared before dragging Bella over to the table with everything on it.

Bella began to complain about not wanting anything and I rolled my eyes.

"Bella, have you not realized that it is futile to argue with Alice about this. I mean, honestly, she's pushier than I am."

Bella glared at me mutinously as she took a seat next to the table. I sat down on the piano bench so I could observe everyone in the room as Alice relieved Bella of her new camera and placed one of the shiny boxes in her hands.

Bella unwrapped it and stared at the box perplexedly, clearly not realizing what it was. She opened it after a moment, only to find that it was empty.

"Um…thanks."

Rosalie smiled and Jasper laughed, going on to explain that it was a new stereo for her truck and that Emmett was installing it at that moment so that it was non-refundable.

She thanked them and then called a thanks to Emmett, whose laugh we could hear from the truck.

"This one is from Rylie," Alice handed my gift to Bella with a grin, who in turn glared at me.

"I told you no gifts!!" Bella complained as she stared at the dark blue wrapping paper. I grinned and flashed the peace sign.

"I know, but I think that you'll like this one."

With a resigned sigh, she pulled at the wrapping paper carefully and removed it from the gift. "Oh, my God. Rylie, this is amazing."

Bella turned the picture so that everyone could see the drawing. It was the picture I'd done of her and Edward when I'd first come over to meet the Cullens. I'd inked over the pencil sketch, and added a little more detail to it to give it a nice finished look. Alice had purchased a frame for it, deciding that it would make the perfect gift for Bella and would make her less likely to complain.

"Thank you, Rylie. I love it." She smiled at me, one of the first genuine ones she'd given all day, before moving on to the next gift Alice told her to open, this one from Alice and Edward.

After Bella gave Edward a hard time for spending money on her, which he didn't, she slid her finger under the edge of the paper and jerked it through the tape.

"Shoot," she muttered, a small paper cut forming on her finger.

"No!" Edward let out a roar and threw himself at Bella, flinging her back across the table. As it and she fell, cake and presents and flowers and plates went flying. She landed in the mess, cutting herself on the crystal and looking dazed.

Jasper and Edward slammed together, sounding like boulders crashing in a rockslide. Jasper was snarling and snapping at Edward, his eyes crazed and inhuman and completely focused on Bella.

Instinctively, I threw up my arms in a defensive position, feeling a cold tingle go down them as ice shot from my hands to form a solid wall between Bella and myself, and the rest of the Cullens, as Emmett grabbed Jasper from behind and the others looked at Bella hungrily.

**A/N: I know, you guys are thinking WTH, but it's all going to be explained in the next chapter. Please forgive me for how stupid this chapter sounds, but it will make more sense soon. ******


	10. Chapter 9 Explanations and Feelings

Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

"Emmett, Rose, get Jasper outside."

I could hear Carlisle but I couldn't see him through the ice wall that blocked Bella and I from the family. As I knelt at her side to see if there was anything I could do, I could hear Jasper snarling and Edward growling like a mastiff in response.

I heard the click of a door open and Esme cry about how sorry she was to Bella, and then silence for a millisecond.

"Let me by, Edward," Carlisle murmured soothingly. I guess Edward did as he was told, because the growling stopped and I saw Carlisle's silhouette on the other side of the ice. "Rylie, I don't really understand what you did, but could you make the ice disappear so that I can tend to Bella?"

"Um…here's the thing," I said sheepishly, "I can't exactly make it just _poof!_ disappear. But there's room for you to come around the back."

Carlisle did as she said, followed by Edward, who knelt down protectively over Bella.

Carlisle lifted Bell's arm, examining it for a moment before reaching over and ripping off a length of table cloth to form a tourniquet.

Bella was looking a little green around the gills when Carlisle asked if she wanted to be taken to the hospital, or if she would rather he just stitch her up here.

"Here, please," she whispered. I understood why she didn't want to go; while Charlie was used to her coming home with some injury or another, if she went to the hospital, there would be this huge ordeal and Charlie would find out and be told that it was a life threatening injury.

"I'll go get your bag," Alice said before disappearing.

"Let's take her to the kitchen table," Carlisle said to Edward, who lifted Bella into his arms and moved around the slowly melting ice. I followed the trio like the dutiful person I am.

"How are you doing, Bella?" Carlisle asked, keeping stride with Edward and maintaining pressure on her elbow and the artery.

She murmured something about being fine, and I noticed for the first time that Edward's face was like a mask; completely unreadable.

By the time we entered the dinning room, Alice was there and had a bright desk lamp set up on the table, next to Carlisle's black bag.

Edward sat Bella in a chair and stood protectively over her as Carlisle pulled up another one.

"Just go, Edward," she sighed.

"I can handle it," he insisted, although his jaw was rigid, and it was clearly taking every ounce of willpower he had not to drain Bella dry.

"You don't need to be a hero," Bella admonished softly. "Carlisle can fix me up without your help. Get some fresh air." She winced as Carlisle dug a particularly large piece of crystal out of her arm.

"I'll stay," he said.

"Why are you so masochistic?" She grumbled.

I piped up at that point. "Edward, you should go. You're on edge and need to get some air. Go find Jasper. I'm sure that he is really torn up about what just happened."

Carlisle and then Bella echoed my sentiments, and, finally, Edward nodded and sprinted out the kitchen door.

As Carlisle spread antiseptic on the wound, I felt the shock from what I'd done wear off.

Murmuring something about needing to use the restroom, I exited the kitchen and all but ran to the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind me.

"Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod!" I clutched the sink, trying to control my arms as they began to shake. "It happened _again_! I thought that it was gone! Shite! Shite! Shite!"

I stared at my hands as if they didn't belong to me, and felt like I was having an out of body experience thing, like you hear about on T.V. I hadn't had any incidents in almost two years, and I'd thought that my strange "abilities" had flown the coup.

I took several deep breaths, forcing myself to calm down, before turning on the facet and splashing my face with cold water. The last thing anybody needed right now was for me to be having a mental break down because my abilities had decided to pop again, especially with the tension that was going to be flowing between Bella and Edward for the next little while.

I exited the bathroom and walked into the kitchen, frowning when I saw that nobody was there. I could hear the rumble of the beast's engine and sprinted to the front door, throwing it open just in time to see the tail lights disappear out of the driveway.

"…They left me." I sank down on the porch steps, staring after the truck forlornly. "Wow… I know I say that I know when I'm not wanted, but this is just ridiculous."

I began to wallow in self pity, figuring that I'd do that for a minute or two, then find out about getting one of the Cullens to take me home. That plan was derailed when someone spoke behind me.

"Rylie? What in the world are you still doing here?" Alice sat down next to me on the steps, followed by the others. "I thought you were supposed to go with them."

"So did I," I smiled wanly. "Any chance I could con one of you into running me home?"

"Of course, dear," Esme said comfortingly. "Although, if you don't mind explaining what exactly just happened with the ice, that would be lovely."

I sighed, figuring that they deserved an explanation, considering I'd just formed enough ice in their living room to form several large ice sculptures. "Okay, but it's going to sound a little far fetched." I took a deep breath.

"So, you all know how I'm half Native Alaskan, right? Well, apparently, my grandmother on my father's side is the shaman of her village. I know that I said that I don't have contact with that side of my family, and I don't, but I found out completely by accident when I was little and we happened to be in the region they lived in.

"I didn't meet with her or anyone from that particular village that could help me. We were living in Juneau at the time, and there was this Native lady that lived across the street from me with her grandson. She was such a sweetheart too….anyways, she used to live with another tribe that had relations with my father's, and she was a shaman in her's, so she knew right away what was going on with me. She kinda took me under her wing and trained me as best as she could, but we ended up leaving the area a year or so later, so I never got to finish training."

"Wait, what's the difference between a witch and a shaman? I thought that a shaman was just like the healer of a village." Esme asked what I'm sure they were all wondering.

"That's true, yet not completely at the same time. I suppose shaman is just one of the terms to describe me and those like me." I shrugged my shoulders. "There's really not much else for me to tell. I don't know everything about what I am, but I know that even if I did, I wouldn't be allowed to tell you. Shamans are very secretive when it comes to their arts. Any other questions?"

Carlisle seemed thoughtful for a moment. "That could explain why Edward has a hard time reading you."

I tilted my head in confusion. "Come again?"

"You know that Edward has the ability to read others' minds, correct?" I nodded. "Well, when you first arrived, he told us that night about the fact that he had a hard time getting inside your mind. At first we thought that it might be because of your relation to Bella, but that wouldn't make sense, because Edward can read Charlie's mind, and he's a much closer relation to her than you are. This shaman thing seems to make sense though."

My eyes widened. "Dude, he seriously can't read my mind? That is SO COOL!!"

"Carlisle didn't say that he couldn't read your mind, only that it's difficult for him," Alice corrected.

I waved her comment away. "Pssh. Whatever. Same difference. It's still really cool."

Emmett snorted and rolled his eyes. I glared at him. "Hey, watch it bub. I may not be a very good shamaness, but I could still kick your backside if I really wanted to." I glanced down at my watch and winced. "Um…sorry to cut all this fun time short, but do you think that one of you could give me a ride home. If we leave now, we should be able to make it home about the same time as Bella and Edward, which means that Charlie won't know that I got left behind."

I looked at them expectantly, and Emmett stood up. "I'll take you home." He reached out and grasped my arm gently, swinging me like a backpack on to his back.

"Bye everyone! See you later!" I didn't realize just how wrong those words were.

Emmett raced off, and we managed to arrive at Charlie's house just as the beast roared into the drive way.

"Wow, now that's what I call impeccable timing." Emmett helped me down off his back and we both glanced at the truck.

"Um…I think I'm just gonna head inside. I'll see ya later, Emmett." He held out his fist and I touched mine to it gently before heading into the house. Charlie looked up from the T.V. as I opened the door.

"Where's Bella?"

"She's coming," I said, and sure enough, she came in through the door not a moment later.

I left her to deal with Charlie and headed up to my room, mulling over the last few hours in my head as I changed for bed.

When I climbed between my sheets, I lay there for who knows how long, and even heard Charlie going to bed. I had the very distinct feeling that something was going to happen. I wasn't sure what, but something was going to change.

Damn, I hate when I'm right.

**Sarcasm: I wasn't very happy with the explanation, but it was the best I could come up with. Please message, rate, and feel free to ask any questions you can think of.**


	11. Chapter 10 Gone

Chapter Ten

**Chapter Ten**

Two mornings after Bella's birthday, I noticed that something was definitely worrying her as I ate breakfast (she claimed that she wasn't hungry). She was snapping pictures of the house, and me, and last night she'd been taking a bunch of Charlie and Edward (who was noticeably more withdrawn). She looked like she hadn't slept at all in the last few days.

I couldn't take it any more as we climbed into the truck. "Bella, what the hell is wrong?!" I asked, turning in my seat to face her.

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong. Why would you ask?" She always had been a terrible liar.

I raised an eyebrow. "Bella, don't try to B.S. me. I'm the queen at it. You're tense, distracted, and look like you could use a good thirty hours of sleep. Now spill!" I tried to appear as intimidating as I could, and she sighed in defeat, knowing better than to try to out stubborn me. Ha. People say that she's hard headed, but she's got nothing on me.

"I think Edward wants us to leave earlier than planned. He's been acting weird since what happened the other night. That's why I've been taking so many pictures; I want to be able to remember everything."

"Well, of course he has," I said. "Been acting weird, I mean. Bella, he thinks that it's his fault, just like what happened in Phoenix," I'd been filled in on that shortly after finding out about the Cullens. "That boy seems to think that every time you trip over air, it's his fault because he wasn't there to catch you." I rolled my eyes at that. "You're over thinking everything. And besides," I smiled and grabbed one of her hands reassuringly, "Edward _wants_ you to have a normal life, right? He doesn't want you to miss out on graduating, or prom― not that you'll go, but still ― or any of the fun, senior year stuff."

I let go of her hand as she turned into the school. She looked a little better, but still worried.

"Hey," I said softly, as she killed the engine and looked at me, "just relax. Everything is going to be fine."

Her mouth quirked in a way that could almost pass for a smile and she began to gather her things.

"Rylie, what would I do without you?"

"Worry until you gave yourself ulcers and premature grays." I noticed her levity was forced, but didn't comment as we exited the truck. I noticed Edward standing next to his Volvo, waiting, and we headed in that direction.

"_He better not hurt her,_" I thought viciously as we neared him. "_Otherwise, it won't matter if he's a vampire and will heal; I'll _find _a way to kill him and send him to the deepest of Dante's levels._"

"Hey, Bella," I said, my tone of voice not giving away my less than friendly thoughts, "don't forget, I'm getting a ride home from Karen after I talk to the councilor, so don't worry about waiting for me." I didn't even wait for a response, not wanting to stick around and see Edward acting all mopey and Bella tenser than a pig in a slaughter house.

During lunch Karen and I chatted about the upcoming weekend bonfire, and she filled me in on what it was going to entail. I got through the rest of the day and before I knew it, the bell was ringing and there was the mass exodus for the parking lot.

My meeting with my councilor took no time at all, and soon Karen and I were speeding out of the now practically empty parking lot.

I shifted in my seat and furrowed my brow as she headed into town. Something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what. "Hey, Karen, do you think that you could just drive me home? I know we were supposed to hang out this afternoon, but I think I'm gonna have to rain check."

She glanced over at me. "No problem. Is everything ok?"

"I don't know," I answered her honestly as she turned onto my road. "But I've got this gut feeling that something isn't right, ya know? And I've learned that I should always listen to my gut."

She accepted my answer without question and pulled smoothly into my driveway. I got out with a wave and saying something about seeing her tomorrow before hurrying into the house.

"Bella? You here?" I don't really know what it was that prompted me to ask the question; I mean, the beast was in the driveway. But my gut was really acting up and sending up the red flag, signaling that something wasn't right.

I set my bag at the foot of the stairs and wandered into the kitchen. Where I found the note.

_Going for a walk with Edward, up the path. Back soon, B._

Okay, something really wasn't right here. I stared hard at the note, then at a note Bella had written about a phone call for Charlie. They were remarkably similar, almost to the point that I could believe that Bella wrote it, but for some reason I couldn't buy into it.

With a curse, I scribbled my own note to Charlie, saying that I'd gotten worried about Bella and went to find her, before grabbing my jacket off the top of my bag, a flashlight just in case, and hurrying out the door.

I began calling out as I jogged towards the path.

"Bella?! Belllllla!!"

I followed the path for a while and, as it got darker and the clouds moved in, I began to regret my decision about not bringing a heavier jacket.

I continued to call out her name, and even thought I heard someone yelling for the both of us, but I couldn't be sure. Somehow, though, I noticed that I managed to wander off the path and had no idea where I was heading. I was grumbling about how it couldn't be any worse when, wouldn't you know it, it did.

The clouds really opened up and it was almost completely black, even with the help of my super-duty flashlight. I pulled up my hood and zipped up all the way in a desperate attempt to keep myself dry and warm. It seemed like I was going in circles, and I couldn't find my way back to the path when I was suddenly forced to an abrupt halt, which made me fall flat on my face.

My shoes had gotten stuck in the mud, and when I finally got them out, I shivered at the feeling of it seeping into my socks and between my toes.

"This sucks!!" I yelled.

Suddenly, I was blinded by a light shining in my face. "Rylie, is that you?"

I almost collapsed in relief as I recognized Mike Newton's voice. I may not have known him well, but at least there was someone I knew out here.

"No, it's the Easter Bunny. Of course it's me!!" I held up a hand to shield my eyes against the glare. "Do ya think you could lower your light? My retinas can't take much more abuse."

"Oh, sorry." The light immediately lowered to the ground at our feet and I could dimly make out his face. "You look like crap."

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, you sure do know how to charm a girl. What brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"Charlie's got practically the whole town looking for you and Bella. Why in the world did you two randomly decide to go off on a walk into the woods?"

"Long story." I didn't feel the need to diverge any more.

"We should probably head back to your house; that way Charlie can calm down a bit." He started to turn when I stopped him.

"Umm…yeah, about that. I can't really feel my feet right now, so I don't know how well the whole walking concept is going to work right now." I smiled sheepishly as he turned and sighed.

He came and knelt down with his back to me, indicating for me to jump onto his back. I scrambled up and, with a grunt, he straightened and began heading back the way he came.

We were silent for a long time, and after a while I realized that I hadn't been all that far from the path to begin with. After a while, I decided to break the silence.

"You know, for future reference, wearing a studded belt while giving someone a piggy back ride is not the best of ideas." I shifted slightly on his back. "It's digging into my legs."

"Hey, there will be no complaints from you." I'm pretty sure he was only pretending to be annoyed. "You're the one getting a free lift, so button it."

"Well excuuuse me." I huffed and remained silent as we _finally _cleared the trees. I saw the house lights and sighed in relief. There were people on the porch and I heard shouting as Mike drew closer to the house.

"I found Rylie!" He called out as we neared the small group of people. I saw Charlie running over, his face a mixture of relief and worry.

"Rylie, thank god! Are you okay, honey?" Charlie slipped into protective uncle mode as Mike let me down and I walked towards him.

"I'm fine, Uncle Charlie," I managed to get out before he enveloped me in a bear hug. Now, normally Charlie isn't really good with displays of affection. However, I guess that all the worry he'd been feeling over the past several hours finally caught up with him. When he pulled back, he began bombarding me with questions.

"What in the world were you thinking? Why did you run off into the woods like that? Have you seen Bella? What about Edward? You're soaked and covered in mud! What happened?!"

"Charlie!!" I practically had to shout to get him to stop. "Chill. Out. Panicking is not helping anyone right now. I had Karen drop me off at home because I had a gut feeling that something wasn't right. I found Bella's note, thought that something wasn't right, and went to find her. Some how, I managed to stray off the path, and when it got dark and rainy, I couldn't find my way back. I got stuck in a mud puddle and fallen when Mike found me."

He looked like he wanted to say more, but some shouts and ruckus caused us both to turn towards the woods.

Out of the gloom, this large, hulking figure began to take shape, carrying something small in its arms.

"Bella!!" Charlie rushed forward to what I now saw was a _huge _guy. Not huge as in fat, but huge as in really, really fit and tall. Rather than follow Charlie's lead, I sprinted into the house to get blankets and towels for Bella. My feet were still cold and muddy, but that was inconsequential at the moment.

Charlie carried her inside and put her on the couch.

"Dad, I'm all wet," she objected feebly.

"Doesn't matter." He said gruffly. "Blankets are in the cupboard at the top of the stairs," he called to someone, but I was already there and immediately began piling the blankets on her. I'd never seen my cousin look like this before. Her face was pale and drawn, and her eyes were unfocused. I could hear her muttering something under her breath.

I sat down on the edge of the sofa and began stroking her hair, like I used to wish someone would do for me when I was upset.

Dr. Gerandy was suddenly by the couch, and he asked me to move over a bit for him. He began going through a series of questions, and giving Bella a once over to make sure she was uninjured. I noticed that a couple of dark skinned gentlemen, including the one who had found Bella, who I later was told his name was Sam Uley,― definitely Native American, which meant that they probably came from the reservation Karen told me the bon fire was at― were staring at Bella and me. While I didn't exactly feel threatened, something was definitely…off about them. I kept my eye on them, and when one of them happened to lock eyes with me, I didn't look away, and stared right back at him. He eventually broke eye contact with me and continued to observe the going-ons with Bella.

After a while, people began to leave and Charlie went to thank them all. I scooted back up near Bella as she began to drift in and out of consciousness.

"Bella," I whispered at one point, making sure no one could hear me but her. "What happened?" I knew from the conversation around me that the Cullens had up and left, but I couldn't figure out why. Why the hell would Edward choose to leave her like that? It didn't make any sense.

She didn't answer me and I sighed, figuring I'd just have to draw my own conclusions. I murmured something to Charlie about going to bed, and it was only then that I realized that I was still in my wet and muddy clothes, so I made a detour for the shower. I stood under the hot water for a long time, trying to put everything together. I didn't doubt that Bella had actually gone for a walk in the woods with Edward; no way she'd go out there on her own. But he must've said something awful to her and left her there for her to be in the state she's in.

My head suddenly snapped up. _He must've told her that he DIDN'T. LOVE HER._ I turned off the shower and stood there with my hand on the knob. Of course! That's the only thing he could've said to her that would cause her to act this way!

I quickly began to get pissed off, and as I hurriedly dried and changed in the bathroom, my mind really began to work this over.

He told her that he didn't love her, which is complete and utter nonsense; anyone with a brain could see that he honestly did with his whole being. The question now was why would he tell her that?… It couldn't be because of what happened on her birthday, could it?

I shook my head I climbed into my bed. Almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.


	12. Chapter 11 Getting Out for a Bit

**Chapter Eleven**

"Are you sure it's okay, Uncle Charlie?" I bit my lip nervously, casting a wary glance towards the kitchen where Bella was sitting at the table, clearly oblivious to what was going on around her. She was barely picking at her food, and seemed to simply be staring off into space.

It had been only a few days since Bella's….never mind. It was now Saturday, the day that I'd made plans to go to the bon fire with my friends, but I felt extremely guilty about it. (**A/N: I don't really know what day Bella's birthday was on, so I'm going to say that it was Monday, which means the Cullens left on Wednesday, so it's been three days give or take)**.

He nodded and also cast a glance towards the kitchen. "Don't worry about it, Rylie. I know that it just happened, but you don't need to put your life on hold. You've already done a lot by getting stuff for her from school and making her go through day-to-day motions; I can handle it for the afternoon. Go, have fun with your friends, and relax."

I glanced at the window just as the suburban pulled into the driveway. "Okay. I'll try to be back fairly early. Maybe get Karen to bring me home if need be."

He smiled tiredly and nudged me to the door. "I'll see you tonight."

I grabbed my coat, slipped into my shoes, and hurried out the door to the suburban, which was already pretty full.

A chorus of hellos called out from the depths of the vehicle as I climbed into the middle between the driver, Trent, and the passenger, some kid named Brandon. It was the only spot left and I was the smallest person in the vehicle. Everyone else had met up with eachother at the Sporting Goods store, and they were nice enough to make a pit stop by my house so that Charlie wouldn't have to leave Bella by herself.

Everyone at school was aware of what had happened, and I'd almost gotten in a few fights because people wouldn't shut up about it. I was once told that I have big dog syndrome, meaning I was really small, like a chiwawa, but I think that I'm the size of a mastiff.

"How's Bella doing today?" Trent asked quietly, so only I could here him as we sped down the road. Everyone else was too absorbed in their own conversations, oblivious to the two of us talking.

"Same as yesterday and the day before," I said just as quietly. "It's like living with a zombie; she's a shell, and I don't see her coming out of it anytime soon, if at all." I'd had to help Bella with the most basic functions for the past week, and I was pissed beyond belief that He-Who-Shall-Remain-Nameless not only left her brokenhearted, but he also stole everything she'd received from the Cullens (with the exception of the radio in the beast), removed her photos of him from her scrapbook, AND the rotten bastard took the picture I'd labored on forever!!!

He nodded sympathetically before tactfully changing the topic to something more light hearted and cheerful.

We eventually reached La Push and the beach, pulling into the parking area and clambering out of the SUV. I breathed in the salty air gratefully; being stuck in a car packed with my fellow teenagers is NOT my idea of a good time. The girls always have waaaay too much perfume on, and the guys, well guys just kinda smell funny.

"Rylie!!!"

I found myself in a bear hug as Karen came running over from where she'd already been standing by the bonfire.

"Oomph!!" I staggered backwards, almost taking her to the ground with me, when Trent chivalrously caught the both of us.

"Whoa now, be careful." He grinned at Karen, who looked away from him and blushed slightly. Hmm….interesting.

"I'm soooo glad you could make it, Rylie!! It just wouldn't've been the same without you." she gushed as we began to unload the coolers in the back of the SUV.

I smiled at her. "I'm glad I could come too. Charlie almost had to kick me out of the house though."

Karen nodded sympathetically, but didn't say a word about the subject. She knew it was a bit of a testy one for me.

I stepped up to the back of the suburban and reached up to take hold of one of the coolers; that is, until someone who was bigger than me nudged me out of the way and grabbed it instead.

I turned and fought to keep the disgust off my face as Nick sneered down at me. Remember him? He was the guy who was oh-so willing to help me out on the first day of school. Problem was, on the third day, he decided that he wanted to go on a date with me, and some how got the impression that I was crazy about him. Needless to say, that little confrontation didn't go well at all.

"Hello there, Rylie. You shouldn't be lifting things like this cooler; you might hurt yourself." Leave it to a total moron to pick on someone just because they happen to be short of stature.

I glared at him and grabbed one of the cases of soda from the back. "You shouldn't be trying to think too much, Nick; you _will _hurt yourself." With that I spun on my heel, leaving Karen to catch up with me, chuckling softly.

"Don't worry, I'm sure one day he'll get the message." she grinned as we set our items down next to the giant mountain-o-coolers.

"I don't know, Karen. Brains covered in WD-40 don't pick up on signals very well."

She laughed and dragged me towards an intense game of beach volleyball someone had started.


	13. Chapter 12 Rescue

**Sarcasm: yay!!! chapter 12!!! I'm finally going somewhere with this!!! I hope you guys have enjoyed the last chapter and the few little bits that I've fixed here and there. I'm sorry for such the long delay. **

**NOTICE: THERE IS A SLIGHTLY MATURE THEME TO THIS. NOTHING BAD ACTUALLY HAPPENS, BUT IF YOU DISLIKE THAT KIND OF STUFF, I SUGGEST THAT YOU SCROLL RIGHT ON PAST IT. **

**Chapter Twelve**

A couple hours later, I sat back on a log someone had dragged near the fire and observed everyone. Karen was sitting across the fire with Trent, both of whom were trying to look like they weren't blushing every time they brushed arms or caught the other's eye. Hmm….interesting. Perhaps I could give the two of them a little nudge together.

The other partiers were goofing off and dancing to the music coming from a battery powered iPod docking station someone had brought and set on top of a cooler.

With a sigh, I stood up and began to walk away from the bonfire, down the beach.

"Rylie, where are you going?" I turned to Karen with a grin.

"Just for a walk down the beach."

"You want me to come with?" Bless her heart, but she was a doll! Willing to leave her (soon-to-be) man, just to walk with little ol' me!

I smiled slyly and pointed at the log as she made to stand up. "You keep that cute booty of yours right where it is, missy, and don't even think about leaving this gorgeous hunk until you get him to ask you out." I grinned and everyone else laughed as the duo in question blushed, glanced at each other, and blushed even harder. "And _you_," I pointed at Trent, "had better have asked my fabbity-fab-fab friend out by the time I get back, or you'll get a beating like you read about!"

"I-" Karen stuttered.

"Well-" Trent was starting to resemble a strawberry, maybe even a cherry by this point. I secretly wondered how long it would take him to turn puce like Uncle Charlie does when he gets agitated.

"Rylie!!"

"Love ya too, darling. Hugs and smooches!" I waved and continued walking, leaving them blushing by the fire and avoiding each other's eyes.

As the light and laughs from the bonfire became dimmer and more distant, I let out a sigh of relief, finally having some peaceful time to myself. At home, with Bella being catatonic and Charlie worrying about her to the point that he was getting some new gray hairs, it wasn't exactly a mellow atmosphere. And it pretty much goes without saying that sure as heck there wasn't a mellow atmosphere at the bonfire.

I was happy to have some alone time, actually. With everyone freaking out at school, and constantly being pestered if Bella's ok, asked about what happened, and then here at the party having Nick staring at me all night, I was in need of it. The beach was perfect for it too.

The waves were crashing to the shoreline not far off to my right, and the moon was full and bright, lighting up the beach in with a silvery glow.

I stopped some ways away from the party, to the point that I could see the flicker of light from the fire, vaguely make out the people milling around it, and occasionally hear a burst of laughter, and stared out at the ocean, mulling over the past few days in my head.

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't notice someone come up behind me until a pair of arms were around my waist, lifting me up off my feet and turning me to face…

"Nick! What the heck?! Let me go!" He grinned down at me as I struggled to pull out of his arms, and pulled me even closer.

"Don't struggle so much, Rylie." He scolded me. "I know that you were planning this tonight. As soon as you left, I cut through the trees to follow you, just like you were hoping."

My eyes widened and I began to struggle even harder. "You're freaking deranged!! Let me go you psycho!"

**(START SCROLLING ABOUT HERE!!!)**

He chuckled and leaned down, running his tongue up my neck. I shuddered in disgust.

"Do you feel what you do to me, Rylie?" He pushed his hips into me and I cringed. "Now you're gonna take care of that."

He moved to kiss me, and I let out a loud shriek. He cursed and threw me to the ground, then knelt down and straddled me, pinning my hands above my head as I tried to hit him and continued to scream.

"Shut up, bitch!" He held my hands above my head with one hand while the other pressed over my mouth to muffle my screams. Of all the times for my freaking stupid powers not to work….!

Suddenly, before I could even blink, somebody tackled Nick and threw him off me. I could hear the sounds of a fight a few feet away from where I was laying dazed, but didn't bother to move until I felt arms wrap themselves under my arms and drag me a few yards away.

"Are you okay?" A dark face appeared in my line of vision, and, if possible, I grew even more dazed than I was. A pair of dark eyes, surrounded by lashes that seemed like they were too long to go on a normal guy, stared down at me, concern radiating from them. His cheekbones were kinda high, without being feminine, and he had a really nice set of lips. The kind that most girls dream about being able to kiss but never get to, ya know?

"Hey, are you okay?" He gently shook me, and that snapped me out of my stupor. I sat up rather abruptly, causing the two of us to bump (and this is the _kind_ way to put it) foreheads.

"Ow!" We yelped and he fell back on his butt, clutching his head. I imagine I looked similar.

"I'm so sorry!! Oh, my gosh, are you okay?" Wide eyed, I crawled over to the mystery guy, and began prodding his head, checking for a serious injury.

He stared at me like I was a mutant space alien, and that's when I realized that I was kinda straddling him and pushing his face into my chest as I checked his head. Whoops!

I fell back away from him and blushed, thanking the darkness and my skin color for hiding that little fact.

He grinned shyly at me. "I ought to be asking you that. He didn't manage to do anything to you, did he?"

We both turned to look at the two boys duking it out on the beach. Well, I guess that's being too generous. Nick was essentially getting his ass handed to him by my other unnamed rescuer. After another minute or two of Nick's face getting pounded deeper and deeper into the sand, the guy next to me called out to his buddy.

"Hey, Em, I think the guy's good and out now. I didn't exactly bring my shovel to bury the ass, and leaving him is just a tad too conspicuous."

As the other guy got off Nick, kicking him once more in the ribs for good measure, I couldn't help the giggle that escaped me; I'm pretty sure the shock was wearing off and I was about to become slightly hysterical.

"Are you ok?" The guy that beat the shit out of Nick knelt down in front of me, his dark eyes filled with worry. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"

I stared up at him, probably looking like an idiot. He was really, really cute…

"Dude, she's in shock. We need to call an ambulance or something." The first guy looked at me nervously as he pulled out a cell phone.

I shook my head vigorously, clearing it. "No….er….yes…I mean, yes, I'm okay, no, I don't need t go to the hospital." I glanced at Nick and shuddered. "H-he didn't manage to do anything."

"Are you sure?" The first guy asked me kindly.

I nodded firmly. "Y-yeah. I-I j-j-just need t-t-to si-sit here for a mi-min-minute. Th-en I'll get m-my fr-friend to t-t-ake m-m-me home." I was shaking really badly by this point.

The second guy sat down next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders comfortingly. "It's ok. He's down and can't hurt you. We won't let him. Just breathe, ok?"

I focused on taking deep breaths, wrapping my arms around my knees in an attempt to stop shivering.

Clearly wanting to distract me, guy number 2 started talking to me. "I'm Embry Call, by the way, and this is Quil Atera. We live on the rez. What's your name?"

"R-Rylie Héixwaa. I live o-ver in F-Forks." I was gradually calming down.

The one named Quil cocked his head at me. "Hey, aren't you Chief Swan's niece?"

I grinned slightly. "Guilty as charged. How'd you know?"

He grinned back at me. "Our friend Jacob Black's dad is friends with the Chief. He told Billy and Billy told us that you'd be showing up."

"Oh. That's cool." I felt like my legs might be able to support me now, so I carefully stood up. They stood up with me and looked around.

"Hey, this is gonna sound weird but…where'd you and this guy come from exactly?"

I pointed towards the bonfire, which was still going full swing. "We came with a bunch of kids from Forks High."

"Oh that's right." Embry nudged Quil as we started across the sand, leaving Nick lying in a bleeding heap. "I heard that a group of them were gonna be down here tonight."

The two of them chatted as I led the way back to the bonfire. Upon reaching the circle of light, I saw that the group from Forks had been joined by a couple of dark skinned kids who had to be from the rez. Karen came bounding up to me (from Trent's side, I might point out. Hahaha.). "Rylie!! What kept you? Are you okay? Nick snuck off after you left and I wanted to go after you, but I didn't notice until just a few minutes ago, and…and…."

I grabbed onto her shoulders and shook her just a bit. "Karen, I'm fine as you can see." I glanced over at Embry from the corner of my eye as he and Quil chatted it up with a couple of the new kids. "He won't be bugging me anymore, don't worry."

She caught what I was hinting at and a huge grin nearly split her face in half. Walking over to Embry, she stuck out her hand and grinned at him.

"Hi, I'm Karen. I don't think I caught your name." She smiled a Quil too.

Embry smiled politely and shook her hand, introducing himself. Quil did the same.

I glanced down at my watch, and my eyes widened.

"Holy crap!! Karen, I gotta go. I promised Charlie I'd be home by 11 and its 11:30."

"Shit!!" She hurried over to the log we'd been sitting on and grabbed her stuff, stopping only to say something to Trent.

I turned to Quil and Embry sheepishly. "Sorry to suddenly run off like this, but I need to get home. Thank you both for saving me."

"Not a problem," Embry grinned. "Hey, do you have a cell phone?"

"Sure, why?" I pulled it out of my pocket, only to have him snatch it. He fiddled with the key pad for a second before handing it back to me and pulling out his own. "What's your number?"

Grinning, I recited off the digits and turned away, waving as I went.

"We'll call you sometime so we can hang out." I heard one of them call out.

I ended up getting to Karen's car first, laughing when I saw her pulling away from a pretty fierce looking lip lock with Trent.

As we climbed into the vehicle, both of us had huge grins on our faces.

"Spill!!" We shouted at the same time, laughing as she threw the car into drive, and sped out of the parking lot.

**OOOOH!!! A possible love interest!! ITS GETTING JUICY!!! But who is it? Tune in next time!! duhn-duhn-duhn!!!**


	14. Chapter 13 Reunions and Possiblities

**Sarcasm: Hello all my adoring fans! I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to update. Friggin school, gets in the way of everything. lol. This one is extra long for your viewing pleasure, and there is a bit of a flashback thrown in for a little extra spice. I sincerly hope that you enjoy it, and hopefully I will have Chapter 14 out here shortly. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (BE SAFE!! FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS DRIVE DRUNK!!) :-)**

**Chapter 13**

**(WORK WITH ME ON THE TIMELINE HERE, K?)**

Charlie didn't have any idea what had happened between me and Nick at the beach; he had enough on his plate as it was and I didn't want him worrying about me with Bella being practically catatonic.

Upon arriving home, Karen and I had quietly gone up to my room after getting into the house. Poor Charlie was asleep on the sofa, and I'd thrown one of the blankets scattered in the living room over him, not wanting to wake him up to get him to his room. Bella's door was shut, and, as usual, there was no noise coming from inside, so I assumed she was asleep.

Karen stayed over that night, and we were up until the wee-hours of the morning discussing her blooming relationship with Trent (and she just couldn't thank me enough. Ha!) and how she was quite certain that that one boy, Embry, definitely had the hots for me, which I'm sure is impossible, considering we just met. The next day, Karen was sitting at the counter munching on the last of my Cocoa Puffs™ (in all their sugary, fake-chocolate goodness), while I hunted around for something that I could shove down Bella's throat in an attempt to get her to eat _something_, when the door bell rang. I heard Charlie's thumping steps going towards the door, and stuck my head out the kitchen to see who it was as he pulled the door open. I was rather surprised to see Renée standing on the other side, pulling her hood down and stepping inside.

I walked over to them as they spoke in hushed voices.

"Hi Renée. How're you?" I tried to smile at the woman who I'd only met a few times, but who had never been anything but nice to me, besides the fact that I wasn't related to her.

She didn't say anything, but wrapped me up in a huge bear hug, a motherly hug. "Oh Rylie, I'm so sorry that you have to put up with all this. Thank you so much for helping Charlie with Bella for the past week."

I patted her back and broke the hug, smiling up at her kindly. "No need to thank me or apologize for anything. Bella's like my sister and I'd put up with just about any kind of nonsense she could throw my way."

Renée smiled, but it wasn't her normally chipper one. I glanced between her and Charlie and cocked my head inquisitively. "Um…not to sound rude or anything, Renée, but why exactly are you here?"

The two of them shared a glance, and it suddenly dawned on me the purpose behind her visit.

"You're here to take Bella to Florida." It wasn't accusatory, or a question; simply a statement of fact.

Renée sighed wearily and nodded. Charlie spoke up then.

"Rylie, we think that it might be better for Bella if she left Forks for a while, got away from the memories here. She's been catatonic for a week."

I nodded, seeing the definite truth and logic behind the action. I wasn't happy that my cousin was going to be leaving me, but this was what was probably best for Bella. "I understand."

Charlie nodded before waving Renée up the stairs ahead of him. "Let's get this over with."

As they went up stairs to start packing Bella's things, I went back into the kitchen, not wanting to see Bella leave. Karen gave me a sympathetic look as I entered, having heard the whole conversation. Without a word, I sat down next to her and pulled a bowl towards me, filling it to the brim with Cocoa Puffs™.

Karen opened her mouth to say something, probably to comfort me, but she never got a chance. A scream came from upstairs, startling us both and causing me to slosh milk on the counter.

Ignoring the mess, I leapt out of my seat and sprinted up the stairs to Bella's room, Karen right behind me. Just as we went skidding past her door, a hairbrush came flying out and banged against the opposite wall. My eyes widened, and I glanced at Karen, our expressions mirroring each other, before I cautiously stuck my head out to peer into the room.

Bella was, amazingly, show some form of life: yelling and screaming at her parents about how she wasn't going anywhere, while Renée and Charlie tried to get her to calm down.

I stood there, unsure whether I should help or not, when my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I motioned for Karen to follow me to my room and shut the door, at least semi-effectively keeping out the noise, and pulled out my phone.

"Hello?"

There was a pause, then someone spoke. "Rylie?"

"Speaking."

"Oh, hi. This….uh….this is Embry Call, from La Push."

I couldn't help the smile that spread over my face. "Oh hey. What's up?" Karen cocked her head at me and mouthed _Who is it?_

_Embry Call, from the beach._ I mouthed back, and a wide grin split her face as she hurried to my side, pressing her ear to the phone to listen in.

"I…uh…I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me and some of my friends. I know it's kind of last minute, and we just met last night, but….uh…yeah."

Karen pulled away and began gesturing to me wildly, trying to communicate.

"Uh….can you hang on a second, Embry? I've got another call coming in." I pulled the phone from my ear and pushed the mute button. "What?!" I hissed at her.

"You'd better say yes to him!" Karen shook my arm in her excitement, nearly making me drop the phone. "This is a big opportunity for you!"

I glared at her and started to put the phone to my ear. "If you'd let me _get _to that point, woman, you'd realize I was just about to say yes and ask if you could come. Sheesh!"

I made sure that I sounded particularly chipper as I un-muted Embry. "Hey, sorry about that. Wrong number. I just checked with my uncle, and he says that's cool. Is it okay if my friend Karen tags along? She's kinda staying the night and I don't want to just kick her out."

"Really?! I mean….that's great. Yeah, it's cool if she comes. My friends and I were trying to figure out what movie to go see in Port Angeles, but since you two ladies are coming, you can pick."

Karen, who'd been listening in again, shrugged at me helplessly, meaning she had no clue what was playing. I wracked my brain for a possibility, snapping my fingers as one came to me.

"How about that new vampire flick? It's got something to do with a girl who falls in love with a vampire. (**A/N: THREE GUESSES WHICH ONE SHE'S TALKING ABOUT!!!!)** I think its something of a chick flick, but it looked like there might be a good action scene or two." I wondered how he and his buddies would feel about being dragged to a chick movie.

Embry didn't even hesitate. "Sounds great! Do you and Karen need a ride?"

"No, we're good. Do you want to meet up at the theater around two o'clock?"

"Sure thing. I'll see you there."

I said a goodbye and hung up the phone, unable to keep the grin on my face. Karen was ecstatic.

"OMG, Rylie! Do you realize how amazingly wonderful this is?! There's a guy that's interested in you! And he's not some kind of creeper!" She leapt up off my bed and rushed over to my closet to paw through my clothes.

I glared at her from my spot on the bed. "You make it sound like I couldn't get a date with a normal guy if I tried. Sheesh, I'm not that much of an ogre woman. And why are you going through my closet?"

"Be_cause_, my dearest Rylie," she didn't even look up, "we need to make sure you look fabulous enough to keep his attention on you instead of the movie!"

I rolled my eyes. "What's the point of going to a movie if you're just going to stare at somebody that's not on the screen?"

Karen heaved a put-upon sigh and sat down next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "Rylie, Rylie, Rylie." She shook her head as if disappointed and her voice took on that weird quiet, almost comforting tone as she patted my shoulder. "I promise, you'll understand when you're older."

I stuck my tongue out at her, and flopped back onto my bed, though I figured eventually I should change into something a little more public appropriate then my baggy sweats and grubby t-shirt.

"Here we go!" I glanced up at the ensemble Karen held up and felt my jaw drop.

"Where did _that _come from?! I know that I don't own a skirt― and that's being polite about it, by the way― that short!"

Karen held up the mini-skirt in question, raising an eyebrow at me. "I don't see what's wrong with it, Rylie. It's a perfectly reasonable length."

"Uh, sure, if you like a skirt being short enough to possibly show off your panty-lines." I gapped at her, surprised that she was even suggesting the mystery skirt that I don't ever recall purchasing.

Karen started laughing suddenly, and I wondered if she had possibly been replaced by an alien over night while we were sleeping. "I was just kidding Rylie. You don't have to wear the mini. But you are gonna wear this!" I felt my eyes bulge almost cartoonishly as she held up a tube top that looked like it would be better suited being pulled over a chihuahua then a human being, even one of my size and stature.

"Not. Happening."

Karen pouted but put the clothes down. "You're no fun."

I grinned cheekily at her before dragging myself over to my closet to peruse my options. In the end the both of us managed to agree on dark wash blue jeans and a blue blouse I stole from Bella's closet (**A/N: see chapter 5)**.

Karen wanted to help me with my hair and makeup, but I pointed out to her that I was going to the movies in Port Angeles, not the Golden Globes or a fancy party, so a ponytail and minimal makeup would be fine.

As we were walking out the door, I stuck my head into the kitchen, where Charlie and Renee were both sitting at the table, talking in hushed voices about Bella. I bit my lip, feeling a wave of guilt crash over me for going off to see a movie, when Charlie was busy trying to pull Bella out of whatever it was she'd fallen into emotionally.

"Uh...Charlie?" He and Renee looked up. "Um…I'm going to the movies with Karen and some friends from La Push. Unless you need me to stay here?" He knew that I would willingly drop my plans in a heart beat if he said that he needed my help.

Charlie shook his head and shooed me towards the door. "Rylie, I told you, you aren't putting your life on hold for Bella. Go have fun with your friends. Just be home at a decent hour and call when you're on your way back."

I smiled at him, gave him and Renee a hug, and hurried out the door after Karen, who was already in her car waiting.

Soon, we were speeding down the road with the radio blasting.

_I come home in the morning light  
My mother says when you gonna live your life right  
Oh mother dear we're not the fortunate ones  
And girls they want to have fun  
Oh girls just want to have fun!!!!_

The both of us were singing *cough* screaming *cough* the lyrics at the top of our lungs as Karen parked the car a few blocks away from the theater. People eyed us like we were high as we got out, laughing our heads off.

We walked towards the theater arm-in-arm, still giggling over our horrendous singing. As we walked in, I scanned the lobby for a couple of dark skinned boys, but couldn't find them.

As I was buying our tickets― Karen was in charge of purchasing snackage― I heard someone calling my name, and turned around to see Embry waving at me with a big smile on his face. There were two other guys behind him, one who I realized was Quil, the other I didn't recognize.

I smiled as we headed over to them.

"Hey, thanks for inviting us." I grinned up at Embry, who seemed to have a pretty goofy grin on his face.

"No problem. I'm glad you could join us."

I smiled at Quil and the other guy, before cocking my head to one side and frowning as I looked at him. He seemed vaguely familiar…

"Oh, yeah. Rylie, this is Jacob Black, one of my best friends. Jake, this is Rylie Héixwaa, Chief Swan's niece."

My eyes widened comically, as did his. "Jakey!!" I jumped on him, almost sending him to the ground. "Ooooh my goodness!! It's been forever, you buttface! You didn't call, didn't write; I thought that you blew me off!"

Jacob laughed and gave me a hug before setting me down. "Its good to see you too, Rylie. Dad told me that you were back in Forks, but I was real busy and didn't get a chance to come and see you."

I opened my mouth to reply, but the clearing of a throat caught my attention. I turned and saw Karen and Quil heading off to the snack bar, and Embry was staring at Jacob and I warily.

"I'm guessing the two of you have met before?" His voice seemed extremely casual, and I wondered what was going on.

"I suppose you could say that." Jacob smiled at his friend as the three of us moved to join Quil and Karen. "I met shortstuff here when we were kids. Dad took me over to Charlie's place one day…"

**(A/N: CUE THE FLASHBACK!!!)**

_General POV_

_Jacob sighed as his dad pulled up in front of Charlie Swan's house. Man, he was gonna be so bored again while Charlie and Billy watched the game again. There was no one to play with; Bella hadn't shown up yet for the summer._

_He climbed out of the car as Charlie came out to help Billy with his wheel chair. He was staring at the woods when he heard one of them say his name._

"_Huh?" He turned to face Chief Swan, who smiled and repeated himself._

"_I know that Bella isn't here to play with you, Jacob, but my niece Rylie is running around here somewhere. I'm sure the two of you will get along great."_

_Jacob had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Great, another girl. Bella was cool and all, but girls have cooties. Man, why couldn't Quil or Embry have come along too?_

_Charlie was staring around the front yard, frowning. "Where'd that little trouble maker go this time?" _

_Jacob turned to look behind him, but before he could, he was tackled from behind and fell face forward into the mud._

"_Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!" The little monster on top of him let out a cry, before jumping off him and running towards Charlie._

"_There she is!" Jacob lifted his face and stared at the small girl who was smiling up at Charlie._

_Her dark hair was pulled up into pigtails with green elastics, and she was wearing a grubby Seahawks shirt with a pair of tattered blue jean shorts, and no shoes. Her face was covered in dirt, as was the rest of her, and she didn't seem to notice the gravel of the driveway digging into her bare feet. Jacob glared at her as he climbed to his feet and whipped the mud off his face._

"_Rylie, that wasn't nice of you at all." Charlie admonished gently. The girl just grinned up at him like a little imp. He sighed and turned her to face Jacob. Underneath the dirt, he could just barely see freckles spattered on her nose and under her bright bluish purple eyes. "Rylie, this is Jacob Black. Keep him entertained while Billy and I set up for the game, ok?"_

"_Ok, Unca Charlie." She skipped over to Jacob's side as the adults headed into the house. "Hiya, Jakey. I'm sowry I knocked ya into the mud. I was hunting butterflies and there was one on your back. Hey! Do you want to play with me! I have this really, really, really, really, really fun game that I made up all bys myself."_

_Jacob rolled his eyes. "No, I don't want to play your game. Girls always come up with stupid games."_

_Rylie glared up at him; even at five years old, she was shorter then everybody. "You're gonna play and you're gonna like it!"_

_His eyes widened and he decided the best thing to do would bet to agree. As he nodded his head, she smiled again._

"_Good! Now, we're gonna play Amazon!"_

"_What's Amazon?" he asked cautiously._

_She rolled her eyes and picked up a large stick. "Silly billy; Amazon is the name of a group of legendary girl warriors. They were the bestest. I'm gonna be an Amazon when I grows up, so I figure I'd better start practicing. I'm going to chase you and when I catch you, you become my servant. Ok?"_

_Jacob eyed the stick she had and gulped; if he managed to survive, he was gonna kill his dad…_

**END FLASHBACK**

Embry gaped at the two of us as Karen and Quil, who joined the conversation halfway through Jacob's explanation on how we met, started gasping for breath through their laughter.

I grinned at Embry as I accepted my Pepsi and three boxes of SnoCaps from Karen (hey, they're only the best candy ever created in the whole wide world!), and began to lead the way to the theater the movie was showing in.

"So you're the little monster that Jacob was telling us about. I remember that." Embry seemed to have recovered from his shock, and in fact seemed much more relaxed then he had when I'd hugged Jacob, as we took our seats about halfway towards the screen.

I was seated between Karen and Embry towards the end of the row, with Jacob and Quil next to him. As the lights dimmed and the previews started, I became aware of Karen nudging me every now and again. I glared at her, and she smiled and jerked her head towards Embry. I rolled my eyes and continued watching as the movie started. About a quarter of the way through the movie, I couldn't resist and glanced out of the corner of my eye at Embry. He was staring at me intently, and as we made eye contact, I felt my face heat up and jerked my eyes back to the screen. I saw him do the same out of the corner of my eye.

Maybe Karen was right. Maybe Embry was interested in me, and wanted to see if we could be more then friends. I stopped paying attention to the movie as I thought about this.

Could I see myself dating Embry exclusively? That answer came a very positive and immediate yes. I'd have to do just a little more research though.

As the movie progressed, I became aware of a hand inching closer to mine, and looked down just in time to see Embry's hand cover my own. I didn't acknowledge it, except for turning my hand to hold his.

Yes, I could see that something could possibly develop later on.


	15. Chapter 14 Bella Speaks

**Chapter 14**

That week at school was crazy. Bella seemed to have been jolted out of her…whatever it was, and began going back to school. Unfortunately, it was like she was in a fog. I don't really know if she even remembers the next few months. All she did was go to school, go home, do her homework, and make dinner. Fin.

I tried to get her to do stuff on the weekends, but she told me that she was busy, or just couldn't do it at that point. Some days I was lucky if I even got a grunt of acknowledgement!

Charlie and I discussed it at length periodically, and we both thought that it was unhealthy for her to be living this way.

On a side note, the Monday after the bonfire, I was surprised to see Nick walking….actually, walking is a kind way to be putting it. He was lurching around campus like his legs weren't quite working right, and his face looked like someone used it as a punching bag (which I guess was basically what happened). He came up to me while I was standing in the lunch line, and leaned down to hiss in my ear.

"Next time you won't be so lucky, Rylie." He pulled back to grin at me, probably thinking that I was afraid. I rolled my eyes.

"I wouldn't go around making threats, Nick. I have connections to a lot of people who would hate to see something happen to me. You're going to be a good boy and walk away from me right now and never speak to me again, or I'm going to tell my uncle just what you tried to do at the beach. You ever been inside a prison, Nicky-boy? You'd be pretty popular, I'm sure, once your face heals up."

He paled slightly beneath his bruises and hobbled off across the cafeteria.

The only time that I can honestly say that I was enjoying myself was when I hung out with Embry. He made me laugh and I always had fun when we where hanging out.

As the months passed, and winter hit, we grew really close, and when we hung out together there was a tension between us. I didn't notice it at first, because it wasn't an angry tension, more anticipatory, like something was going to happen, it just needed a little shove. I talked about it with Karen, and she was all excited.

"Oooh, Rylie! He is definitely in to you! He's gonna make a move any day now, I just know it!"

I rolled my eyes at her over the text books strewn across my bed. "Karen, I don't think he's gonna make a move. You've been saying that since he and I met back in September, and it's already January. It's not gonna happen."

Karen frowned and threw a pencil at my head. "You suck! Let me imagine a happy ending for you, ok?!" Of course, she couldn't imagine one for herself because she was currently dating Trent, so she had her (at the moment) happy ending. It was official I guess the Monday after I met Embry, as they showed up to school in his car, and were holding hands all day. Honestly, the two of them are almost sickening to be around sometimes. They're always making lovey dovey eyes at eachother, and when I teased Karen about it one day, she laughed at me and patted my head like I was a small child, proclaiming that I'd understand "later". Buttface.

One day, sometime towards the end of January, beginning of February (maybe) **(A/N: I'm working out of New Moon here people. All I have to go on is that after January Bella starts narrating again. Work with me.)** I came down the stairs one morning to find Bella and Charlie going at it. I was still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, when I heard something (I later discovered that it was Charlie's fist) it the dinning room table.

"That's it, Bella! I'm sending you home."

I blinked at the amount of yelling that man could do at such an ungodly hour of the morning, before sighing and heading down the rest of the way to see if I was gonna have to pull some damage control.

"…Renee, to Jacksonville," Charlie must've been responding to something Bella said as I entered the kitchen.

"Morning, family!" I tried to sound chipper, but was ignored.

"What did I do?" Bella's face crumpled as she ran through her past activities over the months, which equated to NOTHING!

Charlie scowled. "You didn't _do_ anything. That's the problem. You never do anything."

"You want me to get into trouble?" Bella looked confused.

"Uh, Bella, I think what Charlie's trying to get at is that you getting in trouble would be better then what you've been doing." I hesitantly tried to step in, but Charlie kept on.

"Exactly! Trouble would be better then this…this moping around all the time!"

I saw Bella stiffen and let out a sigh, turning to the cabinets with the hopes of ignoring their argument.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out, grinning as I saw Embry's name flash across the screen. I flipped it open and hit the view button, scanning his message quickly.

_Want 2 come ovr 2 my house tomorrow? Quil and Jake said they couldn't make it but we could find sumthin 2 do._

I grinned widely again and hit the reply button.

_So, what, that makes me the last min resort? Fine, i c how it is. :'( Rylie is sad now!_ With a quiet laugh, I set in on the counter to continue my perusal of the food stuffs available in the kitchen. It buzzed a minute later.

_Ahh! Wait, that's not what I meant! Please don't be angry with me? *begging*_

I laughed evilly at the misery I was causing him, before taking pity on him and asking, _Think you could come get me? Idt that Bella or Charlie will be able to give me a ride._

I sent the message and tuned back into the conversation just as Bella informed Charlie she had to get to school.

"Crap!" I grabbed two slices of bread from the cupboard, plus one of those peanut butter tubes that I bought in case of an emergency, before hightailing it down the hall and out the door with my shoes only half on, and throwing myself into the truck. Luckily, I'd been wearing my school bag.

I didn't expect Bella to say anything to me as we sped down the highway. I was carefully squeezing the peanut butter from the tube onto the bread, when she broke the silence between us.

"Do you have plans for tomorrow?"

My eyes widened and I almost dropped my peanut butter. "Uh…yeah. I'm going to go hang out with a friend in La Push. Why?"

She shrugged. "No reason."

We didn't say another word as she pulled up at the school. We were really early, so the parking lot was hardly full. I didn't say anything to her as I climbed out of the truck. Bella stayed inside, poring over her Calculus homework. I shook my head as I walked away. I don't think Edward realized just how much his decision hurt everybody, Bella especially. I don't think she understood how her actions were hurting everyone around her, either. We used to be thick as thieves, but now I could barely get her to say three words to me.

I was so immersed in my melancholy thoughts, that I didn't notice the person walking towards me until we ran, quite literally, into eachother.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

I looked up at the guy standing in front of me, clutching a piece of paper to his chest like it was a life line. He was pretty cute, I had to admit: spikey blonde hair, amazing baby blues, and a chiseled jaw that was the weakness of any hot blooded woman. He easily topped six foot, and had shoulders like an NFL linebacker, which was pretty impressive for a high schooler.

"No big, I shoulda been paying attention too." I smiled up at him, and he returned the gesture, sticking his hand out.

"I'm Ethan MacTarvish."

I shook his hand. "Rylie Héixwaa. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you're new to Forks."

He laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, is it that obvious?"

"Well, when you go to a school this small, it's not hard to notice somebody new. You need a guide?"

He grinned sheepishly and held out his schedule. "Yeah, that'd be nice."

I scanned the slip of paper. "Hey! We have three classes together! How wicked sweet is that?!"

He looked relieved as we started down the walk way. "So, you're a junior too?"

I smiled widely. "Nope. I'm a sophomore who just happens to be advanced."

I swear, his eyes bugged out of his head. "You're serious?! No way!"

"Way! I did a lot of schooling over the summer to get ahead. That way I can either graduate in my junior year, or just hang around for another year and screw off."

He shook his head and changed the subject.

"So, what're the people here like?"

I shrugged as we claimed a bench. "You've got your usual cliques, though they might not be as wide ranged or as noticeable as in the bigger schools, but that guy," I pointed to Eric Yorkie, "is a Class A jerk. I try to avoid him at all costs. His name's Eric Yorkie. Over there," Mike Newton was just getting out of his car, "is Mike Newton. He used to trail after my cousin like some kind of lost puppy dog. He's what you might call a 'golden boy'. That's Jessica Stanley. She's really twofaced, trust me. And just so you know, all these people are seniors, so they may or may not deign to talk to you since you're a junior."

Ethan laughed as people began to walk by us. "I'll keep that in mind."

I stood up and pulled him to his feet. "C'mon. We need to get to our first class before all the seats are taken."

By lunch time I can honestly say that Ethan and I were fast friends, and Karen accepted him just as easily into our little group. At the end of the school day, as we were walking out to the parking lot, we exchanged phone numbers with a promise to call eachother later to arrange a hang out session.

"Who's that?" Bella asked me as I climbed into the truck with her.

I blinked in surprise. Two actual sentences in one day? Wow, she must be feeling good today.

"His name's Ethan. He just moved here."

"Oh." We were silent for a long moment before Bella asked, "Do you want to go into Port Angeles with me and Jessica to see a movie?"

"Ahh…No thanks. I want to get my homework done so its not looming over my head this weekend."

"Ok."

We didn't say another word to eachother the rest of the way home.

**Hey everybody. I am deeply sorry that this one took forever to publish, but I had the worst case of writers block. I'm not thrilled with the ending, and this chapter was mostly just filler, but I promise, there are some reeeeeeeeealllly juicy parts coming *wink wink*. I hope you enjoyed it!!!!**


	16. Chapter 15 Cookies and Awkward Moments

**Chapter Fifteen**

Life seemed to have fallen into a routine again. While I was hanging out with Embry, Bella would go and spend time with Jacob Black. Charlie was thrilled that she was living a little more, but I had a feeling that some how all that hanging out she was doing was going to come back to haunt her later. Not that it was a bad thing necessarily; Jacob seemed to breathe life back into my cousin in a way that no one else had been able to. She was taking interest in the world around her again, and we were slowly but surely regaining the closeness we had before.

I was in my room one Saturday morning (ok, so it was noon; I like my sleep), lounging around on my bed and trying to convince myself that getting up and doing something productive, like homework or cleaning my room, was a good thing, when Bella knocked on my door and let herself in.

"Hey, I'm gonna head to La Push to hang out with Jacob, and I was wondering if you wanted to go over to Embry's place since I'm heading down there."

I blinked at her for a moment before grinning at the prospect of seeing Embry. The two of us had practically become attached at the hip (in a friend kind of way) despite the fact that he lived in La Push. Karen was still insisting that he was gonna make a move on me any day now, but as she'd been saying that for months now, I wasn't going to be betting money on that anytime soon. Either way, I always had a fun time with him. Though he was actually kinda shy, he had a tendency to become really outgoing when we hung out, but not in a 'gonna get his butt kicked' kind of way. I do have a tendency to bring out the best in people.

"That'd be great. Lemme text him and make sure it's ok."

I grabbed my phone from the night stand and sent him a quick text asking if I could come over. Almost immediately, I got an affirmative yes.

I grinned at Bella as I hopped out of bed and scurried over to my closet, pulling out jeans and a purple long sleeved t-shirt. "Give me five minutes."

Bella nodded and let herself out of my room, shutting the door behind her. Because of my propensity to shower at night, I threw on the clothes and pulled my hair back into a high ponytail after brushing it

I hurried down the stairs, found Bella in the kitchen, and rushed her out the door to the truck.

"C'mon! Move it Bella!"

She raised an eyebrow as we pulled out of the driveway.

"What's the hurry, Rylie? What exactly is going on between you and Embry anyway? The two of you are practically attached at the hip."

I made a face at her. "What exactly is going on between you and Jacob, Bella? Its not like you really have any room to talk about being attached to somebody's hip."

Bella didn't say anything and our ride continued in silence. As we pulled into La Push, I couldn't take the quiet any more.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I shouldn't have said that. It's just I don't really know what's between me and Embry other then friendship. But its like there's this…..spark, or something, between us that hasn't been acted on yet, and I really want it to be acted on, but I don't know if he feels the same way, so I don't want to act on it, and, well, yeah. It's just confusing."

Bella smiled lightly as she pulled up next to Embry's driveway. "I'm sure it'll work out, Rylie. As hard as it is for you, just be patient."

I grinned at her as I climbed out of the car. "Thanks, Bells. Call me when you're on your way back to Forks, ok?"

"Will do."

I slammed the door shut and waved as she drove off, before turning towards Embry's house. There really wasn't much to the house, to be quite frank. It had a living room-dining room-kitchen, three small bedrooms, and one bathroom. (**A/N: Basically, imagine the Blacks' house. At least this is the impression I got of their house in the book.)**

I hadn't even reached the front porch when the door flew open and Embry jumped out, swooping me up in a huge hug.

"Rylie! It's about time you got here! I've been having withdrawals from not being able to see you!"

I laughed as he set me down. "Em, I just saw you three days ago."

"I know," he sighed dramatically, "yet it seems like a lifetime!"

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "…Have you been reading Shakespeare again?"

"…Maybe." He grinned and ushered me into the house. "Mom's at work, so we pretty much have run of the house. What do you wanna do?"

I tapped my chin, pretending to think. "Well, I'm a little tired of kicking your butt at video games, and I'm pretty sure we've watched every movie in your house at least three times each." He stuck his tongue out at me and I smiled innocently before a brilliant idea came to me. "I know! Let's make chocolate chip cookies!!!" I ran into the kitchen and started hunting down the supplies necessary to make the delicious chocolately delight.

Embry smiled and followed me into the kitchen, calmly grabbing what I couldn't reach, and laughing when I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up, buddy. Let's all make fun of the short person." I pouted and turned my attention back to the ingredients strewn across the counter.

Rolling up my sleeves, I threw my arms into the air. "Let the cookie baking commence!!!"

About an hour, three bags of chocolate chips, four broken eggs on the floor, and an exploding bag of flour later, Embry pulled the last batch of cookies out of the oven, and set them on the stove to cool. I was already happily working my way through my fifth cookie and second glass of milk.

Once the cookies were cool enough to transfer to a plate, Embry turned to me with a slightly tired grin and pulled me out of my chair.

"Ok, now that we have successfully made your cookies and made a mess of my kitchen, let's go for a walk and blow off some steam."

I looked at the plate of cookies mournfully. "But…my cookies…."

"…Will still be here when we get back." Embry calmly ushered me out the door with a hand on my lower back, and we tromped through the woods towards the beach. (**A/N: I don't know if Embry really does live near the beach, but I'm saying that he does.)**

We walked along the sand in a companionable silence, eventually finding a log to sit on, and somehow began discussing important life questions.

"So, would you rather be a paint brush or a popsicle stick?" I asked him, laying back on the sand to watch the clouds, which meant the whole sky.

"Um…probably a paint brush. Would you rather drink straight pickle juice, or fish oil?" He cocked his head at me.

I tapped my lower lip thoughtfully. "Well, pickle juice isn't actually that bad, but I've heard that fish oil is supposed to be good for you. So, for the sake of possibly being healthy and trying something new, I'd say fish oil." I beamed at him.

He looked a little green. "You are so weird."

"Well, at least I don't look like your face!" He scowled and I grinned at his irritated expression before reaching over and tapping his shoulder. "Tag, you're it!" I jumped up and took off running, laughing as I heard him scrambling to his feet behind me, cursing.

We raced along the beach, him almost catching me once or twice, but I managed to dance narrowly out of the way.

I turned to see how far he was behind me, when he suddenly leapt at and tackled me, sending us both tumbling to the ground.

I was laughing as he turned to absorb most of the impact, before he rolled us over so I was pinned.

I was still giggling as he grinned down at me.

"Gotcha." Smug jerk. "So, what's my prize for catching you?"

I scoffed at him. "Catching me? Buddy, I _let _you catch me. I figured that I shouldn't harm your tender male ego about me being able to out run you. I didn't want you feeling bad about yourself." Insert cheeky grin.

"Why you little…"

"Hey, no wisecracks about my height pal!"

He then proceeded to tickle me within an inch of my life, making me squirm and wiggle trying to get away.

"Beg for mercy!!!" He laughed at me during a momentary pause.

"Never!!!" I could barely pant the words out.

He noticed that I was trying to catch my breath, so gave me a break from the tickling. As our breath calmed and our heartbeats returned to normal, I took notice of the position we were in.

Embry's hands were planted on either side of my head, and we were almost completely touching from chest to feet. His face hovered above mine, and I saw comprehension of our situation dawn on his face.

We stared up at each other for a long moment, then he hesitatingly began to lean down, his lips parting slightly.

"_Ohmigod! Ohmigod! Ohmigod! He's gonna kiss me! He's gonna freakin' kiss me! Finally!!!" _My mind was racing, my heart was acting like a hummingbird, and my stomach became butterfly party central.

My eyelids drooped, and I flicked my tongue out, wetting my lips. I could feel his breath on my lips, our faces were millimeters apart…

"…_So get back, back, back to where we lasted.  
Just like I imagine.  
I could never feel this way.  
So get back, back, back to the disaster.  
My heart's beating faster.  
Holding on to feel the same…"_

Embry let out a muffled curse and lifted himself off of me **(A/N: wow, that almost sounds dirty!)**, allowing me to fish my cell phone out of my pocket.

"Yes Bella?" Ok, so I sounded a little irritable, but c'mon! She ruined my moment!!!

"I'm on my way to come pick you up; we're gonna meet up with Charlie for dinner."

"Sounds good. I'll see you in a bit." We hung up and climbed to my feet, brushing sand off my backside so I wouldn't have to face Embry yet; my face was probably similar to a tomato.

"So, uh, Bella's on her way to come get me." I glanced at him through my hair. "We should probably head back."

"Yeah…" Embry seemed embarrassed or disappointed, I couldn't really pinpoint which.

As we were walking, I had the sudden impulse to grab hold of his hand, so I did. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed him glance down at me sharply, but I was a little too preoccupied with frowning at his hand.

"Embry, what in the world?! Your hand is burning up!" I reached up and placed one hand on his forehead, the other on my own. "Oh my goodness! Are you feeling ok? Your skin is on fire!!!"

He frowned down at me. "I feel fine. No problems."

"Are you sure? 'Cause sometimes these things start out as nothing, but then next thing you know, you're flat on your back for the next week and can't get out of bed."

Embry laughed and gave me a one armed hug. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

I bit my lip nervously, but left it alone.

We continued the rest of the way to his house in silence, and just as we walked up to the house, I saw the beast pull in at the end of the driveway. Bella honked once and I waved to let her know that I'd be right over.

I looked up at Embry and smiled. "So, I'll see you later, right?"

He nodded. "Y-yeah."

I frowned at him. "You're sure that you're okay?"

He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. "Man, that was weird. I'm not feeling so good anymore."

I gasped and started pushing him towards the door. "You get that butt of your's inside that house right now, and get into bed after drinking orange juice or something. If you still feel bad tomorrow, go to the doctor's, am I understood?"

"Yes, mother." He gave me a weak cheeky smile before leaning down to kiss my cheek. "I'll see you later."

He walked into his house after turning me towards the beast, which I walked to slightly stunned. By the time I was in the beast, I was grinning wide enough to make Bella grin too. "Thought nothing was going to happen, huh?" She asked slyly as she pulled back onto the road.

I just grinned silently the rest of the ride.

**Sarcasm: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SOOOO CUTE!! If I do say so myself (which I did, but that's beside the point) XD I'm sure you can all guess what's happening to Embry, and there's a whole lot o' drama waiting for you in the next chapter (just as so as I write it! haha) I hope that you enjoyed this segment of VWWOM, tune in next time to see what adventures and mishaps Rylie gets herself into!!! *cue dramatic ending music and credits***


	17. Chapter 16 Phone Calls and Running

**Note 4/13/2009: when you guys read this chapter, you should youtube The Secret Handshake's "Too Young"**

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Gen POV**

The wolves gathered in the clearing, having just run the girl off towards the road. The Alpha glanced around at his pack, noticing the forlorn and disconsolate expression on the newest member's face.

"_It has to be this way. For her._"

The thin gray wolf glanced at his Alpha for a moment. "_I know. I just wish it could be different…_"

The Alpha nodded in understanding. "_For what it's worth, I am sorry._"

The silver wolf who had started the chase scoffed. "_Get over it already. You might as well get used the fact that you're never going to see her again. I don't see what the big deal is, anyway; she's just some chick. Or are you mad because she's actually going to find someone who's worth the time and isn't a bas—_"

The gray wolf let out a snarl and tackled his pack mate to the ground, clamping his jaws around the other's neck hard enough to get his point across without breaking skin.

"_Don't EVER talk about her with that kind of disregard again, understand?!_" The gray wolf was growling and snarling like a demon.

The silver wolf let out a snarl of his own and snapped his jaws at the gray wolf, forcing him backwards and away from him.

They circled each other, snarling viciously, lips pulled back to reveal sharp, dangerous looking teeth.

Just as they were about to leap at each other and probably tear each other apart, the Alpha let out growl himself.  
"_**That is enough!**_" His voice caused the other two to wince and crouch down, whimpering in submission. "_**You,**_" he looked at the silver wolf, "_**will not disrespect your pack mates that way. You provoked him. And you,**_" he looked at the gray wolf, "_**we don't attack each other. Ever.**_"

The gray wolf nodded his head to the Alpha, before taking off into the woods, concentrating on blocking his thoughts from the rest of the pack. Within a matter of moments he was racing towards a very familiar town, where a very familiar truck was pulling up the very familiar driveway of a very familiar house.

A petite girl with long, black hair jumped out of the passenger side of the truck and ran up into the house. From the distance he was at, he couldn't really see her face, but he knew she was crying from the smell of tears on the wind. A few moments later, a light in one of the upstairs widows came on. The window was opened part way, and thanks to his extremely sensitive hearing, he could hear the sounds of her sobs.

He lifted his head and howled, pouring all his sorrow, guilt, and regret into the sound.

"_I am so sorry, Rylie._"

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**SARCASM: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and that your valentines (or single awareness) day was wonderful. I hope to have the next one out soon. **

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	18. Chapter 17 A Different Perspective

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Gen POV**

The wolves gathered in the clearing, having just run the girl off towards the road. The Alpha glanced around at his pack, noticing the forlorn and disconsolate expression on the newest member's face.

"_It has to be this way. For her._"

The thin gray wolf glanced at his Alpha for a moment. "_I know. I just wish it could be different…_"

The Alpha nodded in understanding. "_For what it's worth, I am sorry._"

The silver wolf who had started the chase scoffed. "_Get over it already. You might as well get used the fact that you're never going to see her again. I don't see what the big deal is, anyway; she's just some chick. Or are you mad because she's actually going to find someone who's worth the time and isn't a bas—_"

The gray wolf let out a snarl and tackled his pack mate to the ground, clamping his jaws around the other's neck hard enough to get his point across without breaking skin.

"_Don't EVER talk about her with that kind of disregard again, understand?!_" The gray wolf was growling and snarling like a demon.

The silver wolf let out a snarl of his own and snapped his jaws at the gray wolf, forcing him backwards and away from him.

They circled each other, snarling viciously, lips pulled back to reveal sharp, dangerous looking teeth.

Just as they were about to leap at each other and probably tear each other apart, the Alpha let out growl himself.  
"_**That is enough!**_" His voice caused the other two to wince and crouch down, whimpering in submission. "_**You,**_" he looked at the silver wolf, "_**will not disrespect your pack mates that way. You provoked him. And you,**_" he looked at the gray wolf, "_**we don't attack each other. Ever.**_"

The gray wolf nodded his head to the Alpha, before taking off into the woods, concentrating on blocking his thoughts from the rest of the pack. Within a matter of moments he was racing towards a very familiar town, where a very familiar truck was pulling up the very familiar driveway of a very familiar house.

A petite girl with long, black hair jumped out of the passenger side of the truck and ran up into the house. From the distance he was at, he couldn't really see her face, but he knew she was crying from the smell of tears on the wind. A few moments later, a light in one of the upstairs widows came on. The window was opened part way, and thanks to his extremely sensitive hearing, he could hear the sounds of her sobs.

He lifted his head and howled, pouring all his sorrow, guilt, and regret into the sound.

"_I am so sorry, Rylie._"


	19. Chapter 18 It's getting kinda chilly

**Sarcasm: hey guys, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Just FYI, I'm going to do a little bit of time skipping sort of kind of. I'm not exactly sure on how much time passes between Embry changing and Jacob changing, so please forgive me if it seems a little off. I made this extra long for you all; I hope you enjoy it :)**

**Chapter Eighteen**

In the days that followed my trip to _his_ house, I tried not to show anything other then indifference to the subject whenever anyone (mostly Charlie and Karen) brought it up. I think Bella knew that it was a bit of a touchy topic, so didn't say anything about it.

The day after, when I finally emerged from my room with red, puffy, gritty eyes, messy hair, and just looking all around bedraggled, Charlie definitely had something to say about it.

"Rylie, what happened? Bella told me that you went all the way to La Push to visit Embry, and that she found you wandering on the side of the road. What did he do to you?"

I slammed open the cupboard and grabbed a glass, frowning as I filled it with orange juice from the fridge.  
"He can't be my friend anymore. He can't be my anything."

Charlie stared at me in shock over his cup of coffee. "What?"

I laughed without humor as I pulled out the box of donuts I'd made Bella buy. "It was the whole 'its-not-you-its-me' type thing, except it really is me, if the words 'I don't want you coming to La Push anymore' and 'don't call or text me again' are anything to go by."

Charlie sat there flabbergasted as Bella honked the truck horn outside. I shouldered my bag and walked out the door, muttering, "I'll see you later, Uncle."

Bella didn't say anything as we drove o school, allowing me to fume.

I'd woken up this morning, completely over the fear that I'd had when those wolf-bears had chased me away from Embry's house. Instead, I was furious at how Embry had treated me. At the very least, he could've given me the respect and courtesy I deserved after us having been friends.

When we got to school, I immediately located Karen and dragged her off to class, which was thankfully still relatively empty and related the whole story to her.

"He did not say that to you!" She looked appalled as I got to the part when he told me we didn't have anything.

"He did so!" I glared at my shoes, as though they were the source of all my current problems.

"What a jerk!!!" Karen looked and sounded furious. "Why, I ought to go down to La Push and give him a piece of my mind!"

I gave her a wan smile and shook my head. "Don't even bother, Karen. He's not even worth the time."

Karen's lower lip trembled slightly, and she threw her arms around me with a dramatic (though somewhat restrained) wail. "Oh! My poor, poor, poor little Rylie!!! Don't fear; we'll find you an even better guy then that jerk and then when we go to a party you can totally make him see that he lost out on a good thing!!"

I laughed and hugged her back. "Thanks, Karen. You're a real sweetie."

The two minute bell rang at that point, making us break up our hug and head toward our respective classes.

Both Ethan and Trent later offered to go beat him up for me. I smiled, but told them that it wasn't necessary, that I'd just rather forget the whole thing.

Karen didn't approve.

"Rylie, you should _not _simply take this laying down! Where is your womanly pride! This guy has slighted you horribly, and you're saying that you just want to forget it!! Absolutely not!"

Karen looked so furious it was comical, making me and Ethan bust out laughing while Trent tried to placate his irate girlfriend.

"Babe, I think Rylie is serious. You should just let her do what she wants." Trent wrapped an arm around Karen's waist and nuzzled her neck, which seemed to calm her down.

I hid my grin in a cough as they cooed at each other. They were the two I thought of when I envisioned a perfect high school couple. I knew for a fact that they hadn't fought once over anything serious since getting together, and they weren't always connected at the hip.

Thinking of that made me a little depressed, so I forced those thoughts from my head and made myself focus on having fun with my friends. We made plans to go see a movie that weekend in Port Angeles.

I strived to not let my mind wander to thoughts of Embry. I hung out with my friends after school to "study" not that we got much done mind you, so I wound up doing it almost past midnight sometimes. Eventually, though, I was able to do stuff on my own without getting teary if a thought of him came into my mind. Mostly I would get irritated, and start cleaning, which meant that the Swan household was sparkling (**A/N: that's something I do when I'm mad. I clean the house, haha)**.

I was in the kitchen, trying to find something to whip up for dinner, when the phone rang. Charlie picked up in the other room, and had a very short conversation with the person on the other end. I walked out of the kitchen curiously as he hung up and walked to the window.

"Who was it?"

"It was Billy. Apparently Jacob and Bella had a fight and she's pretty upset about it. She's on her way home right now."

I felt a horrible feeling rising up in my gut, and went to watch worriedly with Charlie for a sign of headlights coming up the road.

Eventually, we heard and saw the beast roar up the road and into the driveway. Charlie went to the door and stood out on the porch, waiting as Bella shut the truck off before hurrying out to open the truck for her. I stood in the entrance from the living room to the hallway as they came in, Charlie's face horrified, Bella's looking far too much like it did…before.

"Then what did happen?" I heard him say as he ushered her inside and wrapped the afghan around her; her clothes were soaked and she was shivering uncontrollably.

"Sam Uley says Jacob can't be my friend anymore." Her voice was lifeless, just like before.

I felt my anger start to rise as Charlie shot Bella a look. "Who told you that?"

"Jacob."

Charlie looked concerned. "You really think there's something wrong with the Uley kid?"

"I know there is. Jacob wouldn't tell me what, though.

"I'm going to go change."

"Okay." Charlie seemed distracted.

I watched as my cousin made her way up the stairs, barely able to squash the anger and fury that was rising in me.

"I need to make a phone call." Charlie muttered and walked into the kitchen.

I stood there in the hall for a moment, unsure of what to do. Then I saw the keys to the truck on the floor where they must've slipped from Bella's hand.

Without a thought of how illegal what I was about to do was, I snatched them up, threw on my coat, and ran outside to the truck.

It started with a roar and I peeled out of the driveway, the engine groaning as I pushed it as fast as it would go.

I eventually pulled up at the Black house, jumping out almost before I had the truck turned off.

I stood halfway between the truck and the house, breath heaving with the force of my anger.

"_Jacob Black!_" I knew that somebody heard me because I saw a curtain open in the living room at my shout. "Get out here, _now!_"

A moment passed, then the door opened and three of the biggest guys I've ever seen came out onto the porch. They all looked a little familiar to me, but I couldn't exactly place them.

One of them glared at me.

"What are you doing here, Rylie?"

I recognized that voice anywhere, regardless if it had deepened by a couple octaves. My eyes narrowed on that particular giant.

"I'm here, Jacob, because you had the _audacity_ to completely and utterly destroy my cousin! She had only gotten better because of _you_!"

I saw him glance behind him at one of the guys; recognition sparked, and I realized I was staring at Sam Uley. He must've had something to do with Jacob leaving Bella and, something in my gut told me, Embry not wanting to be with me anymore.

My eyes narrowed on him. Around me, though I didn't notice except in the periphery, the wind started to wail, and the temperature started to drop drastically. As I took a step forward, my feet crunched on the suddenly frosty ground, my breath misting in the air in front of me. They looked confused at the sudden weather changes.

"You know, I really could handle you telling someone I cared about to give me up, but the _instant_ you tell another someone to leave one of my family members that I love, we gonna have us some serious issue, Sam."

I continued to stride forward, feeling that familiar tingle in my arms that meant something was about to come out. The guys were beginning to look nervous for the first time since my arrival.

With a scream, I shoved at them (from about a distance of about twenty feet), pushing all the energy that was made manifest in the form of ice and wind towards them. The icicles smashed against the porch and them (I made sure not to hit the windows so Billy couldn't come after Charlie to replace them— though who would believe that icicles had broken them when it wasn't naturally cold enough for them?), and the wind blew the rain and ice into their eyes (not that I cared).

I caught Jacob's gaze in a hard glare as he tried to cover his face from the onslaught.

"Mess with my family again, and you'll rue that day for the rest of your exceptionally short life."

I spun on my heel and stormed to the truck, climbing in and slamming the door with enough force to rock the large vehicle.

I tore out of the driveway, praying they would all be sprayed with mud from the tires.

As I glanced in the rearview mirror, I saw two more guys join them from the woods, staring curiously after the truck as I sped off in it as much as I was able to.

When I arrived back at the house, I half expected Charlie to come blustering out of it with questions about where I'd thought I'd been going, and what did I think I was doing, taking the car with only a permit?

However, Charlie was calmly sitting (ok, more like furiously fuming) in front of the T.V., watching the game.

"Is he still breathing?" He asked as I dropped the keys on the table by the door.

I pulled my hair out of the ponytail, sighing as I shook it out. "He's probably wishing he wasn't right about now."

I headed towards the stairs, intent on taking a shower, and could've sworn I heard Charlie mutter, "Good girl."


	20. Chapter 19 Factor Theorems and a Party

**Sarcasm: Hey everyone. I noticed the other night while reviewing New Moon that I was going to end up having a really hard time wrapping up the story if I didn't fix a few things. I hadn't been following the book very well, and for that I apologize. Nothing drastic has been changed in this chapter, so I wouldn't worry about reading beyond the first couple paragraphs, unless you absolutely want to. Stay fabulous!**

**Chapter 19**

"(_x_ + 1) is a factor of _x_5 + 1, so if I use the Factor Theorem, that should mean that −1 is a root of _x_5 + 1. For, (−1)5 + 1 = −1 + 1 = 0. Therefore, according to the Factor Theorem,  
[_x_ −(−1)] = (_x_ + 1) is a factor! Ha! Take that Pre Calculus!!" I finished writing the equation on my paper with a flourish, and set aside my Pre Calc book just as my bedroom door burst open, revealing a very pumped up Karen.

I blinked up at her as she began to rummage through my closet. "Hello, can I ask what was prelude this random decision of yours to go through my closet when you know nothing in there is gonna fit you?"

"We, my darling Rylie, have been invited to a bonfire tonight. And don't give me the excuse that you have Pre Calculus homework, Miss Smarty Pants, because I know you just finished it, plus it's Friday and you have all of next week. It's Spring Break! We need to go par-tay!!!All work and no play makes Rylie a dull girl."

I glared at her and flopped back down on my bed. "Yeah, well all play and no work makes Rylie not a college bound girl. Karen, I have absolutely no desire to go down to La Push this weekend. What exactly is the point?"

"Uh, the point is that you'll have fun, and get to dance, and maybe meet some cuties from other schools that are showing up?" Karen deadpanned.

I pretended to think about it for a moment, before crossing my arms and shaking my head firmly. "No." I picked up a paperback sitting next to me and opened to the last page I'd read.

"Rylie, please please _please _come tonight! It'll be fun!" Karen was practically on her knees begging me to go.

I sighed and shook my head, not even glancing up from the book.

"Karen, I already told you, I don't want to run the risk of seeing _him_!"

She didn't have to ask who I was referring to. She frowned at me.

"So what?! Rylie, you are doing what you said you would never do! You're letting the actions of a guy dictate your life! So what if you run into him at the bonfire?! You gotta show him that he missed out on a good thing!"

Karen's words struck a nerve and I set my book aside. "You know what, Karen? You're absolutely right! I am letting him dictate what I'm going to do! And I'm not going to let him anymore!!!" Suddenly filled with a new energy, I strode over to my closet and began tossing clothes out, trying to find something decent to wear. "Would you be a dear and give Ethan a call and tell him that he's gonna be my date to this thing tonight. I'm going to show up looking fabulous with a fabulous looking guy to hang on to, so if he does show up, I can rub it in his face. _Buwahahahahaha!!!!_" (**A/N: Oh, come on. Like you wouldn't do this to a guy who was a total jerk to you without given reason? I sure as hell would.)**

Karen grinned as she held her phone up to her ear. "That's the spirit, Rylie!!"

About half an hour later, Ethan and Trent were knocking on my door, waiting for me and Karen to come out.

Ethan whistled as I did a little twirl for them. "Rylie, you lookin' good, girl!"

I laughed and linked arms with him. "Thank you so very much!" It's nice to be appreciated sometimes, isn't it?

I climbed into Ethan's car as Karen and Trent piled into his. Even though we were going to the same place, we always took separate cars because somebody always wanted to stay later then someone else. This way, every one wins.

There were already people there when we arrived, most of whom I recognized from school. The kids from the rez where all ones I didn't know, which I was extremely thankful for, though I kept glancing around, waiting for a certain someone to just pop up out of no where.

"Rylie, relax." Ethan whispered into my ear at one point when he noticed me acting as nervous as a jackrabbit during open season. "Karen, Trent and I all have our eyes peeled for him. You need to relax and let off some steam. If he shows up and try anything, I'll pound him into a pulp."

I smiled weakly at Ethan, slightly comforted to know that he and my other friends were watching out for me. For their sake, I forced the tenseness in my shoulders to ease, and focused on having fun.

About an hour later, I was a little surprised to find myself putting theory into practice and having a good time. Karen and Ethan had both dragged me into a dance/mosh pit thing more then once, I'd had multiple guys from La Push (and a couple from Forks) ask for my number, and was just having fun messing around with my friends.

"Do you want a soda, Rylie?" Ethan gestured towards a cooler that was almost surrounded by teenagers.

I smiled and nodded. "Pepsi, please."

"Sure thing, honey." He gave me a peck on the cheek and headed to the cooler.

I stood up from the log we'd been occupying for the past thirty minutes and started walking a little closer to the water, intent on getting away from the heat of the bonfire and various people surrounding it.

When I was close enough to the shore line to just lightly feel the spray, I lifted the hair off the back of my neck, trying to cool down from dancing. I closed my eyes with a sigh, relaxing as my body temperature lowered.

Suddenly, out of no-where, I was swept off my feet, into someone's arms and a bear hug.

"Rylie! Oh my God, I haven't seen you in forever!!" I could hear the guy's voice rumbling from his chest into my ear, but the words were taking a while to be processed by my brain through the panic I was suddenly feeling, not to mention the fact that my brain was suddenly cut off from its oxygen supply.

The dude put me down and beamed down at me like I'd done something clever as I gasped to catch my breath, staring up at him with a bewildered expression.

"Um…do I know you?" Who the heck was this guy?

He gasped as though in pain and clutched at his heart. "I can't believe you don't remember me, Rylie! And here I was thinking I'd made at least something of an impression on you!"

I started backing away. "Er…."

"I mean, you were only practically dating one of my best friends!"

I glanced into the guy's face, realization dawning along with horror, and I quickly scanned the beach. There was no familiar dark brown face besides his, but that didn't relax me any as I forced a smile on my face to be polite.

"…Hi, Quil." I looked over his very much changed physique, and couldn't help but remark, "What in the world happened to you? Been pumping 'roids?"

He laughed, oblivious to my discomfort, and flexed his huge biceps for me. "Naw, just underwent a couple of changes. I look good, don't I?"

"Yeah…" I froze as a familiar voice spoke behind Quil.

"Hey Quil, Sam wanted me to tell you that you're on tonight."

I could feel my muscles attempting to snap my bones, I was so tense. No way, no way, no way!

Quil turned around, grinning like an idiot and pulling me out from behind him. "Hey, Embry, look who the cat dragged in!"

I stared up at him, unable to believe my eyes. He was at _least _a whole foot taller then when I last saw him, and was only wearing a pair of shorts cut off at the knees, so I was able to see the rope after rope of muscle on his torso and arms. His hair was a lot shorter then it had been, almost a militaristic buzz cut. When my eyes met his, I was taken aback by what I saw; they were harder, not a light with laughter like they used to be, and at that moment were drilling into me with a look of intense surprise, longing, and elation.

I pulled away from Quil and started walking away, not even interested in trying to do the polite thing and exchange pleasantries, only to have a large, hot hand gently grab hold of my arm.

"Rylie-"

"Save it, Embry, and let go of my arm." I kept my face averted from his, refusing to look at him or meet his gaze. Or rather, I did until he stepped in front of me and lifted my face to his. His eyes searched my face, not that I had any clue what he was looking for.

"Rylie…" he whispered my name like it was a prayer or benediction.

I rolled my eyes, jerked my face out of his hand, and tried to do the same with my arm, rather unsuccessfully, so I glared at him.

"Let. Me. Go."

He had that stubborn look on his face that meant I wasn't going to like what he had to say next.

"No. I'm never going to let you go." Yup, not liking it.

I laughed without humor. "You already did, remember? You're the one who refused to talk to or see me, if you'll recall. We're not friends anymore, Embry. You made damn sure of that. Now let me go, or I will scream bloody murder and take out a few key body parts of yours."

He frowned, and opened his mouth, but never got to say anything.

"Rylie!"

I almost sagged in relief when Ethan came running up. I saw him and Embry eyeball each other, Ethan puff up like a rooster, and knew that this wasn't going to end smoothly.

"You ok, Rylie?" Ethan asked, though he didn't look away from Embry, who tensed up suddenly.

I bit my lip and tried to pull away from Embry.

"Actually, I'm not feeling so good. I wanna go home."

Ethan nodded and reached over to grab my other arm, only for me to be yanked away from him.

"_I'll _take her home." Embry practically snarled at him, shaking uncontrollably.

Ethan raised his eyebrows. "Dude, calm down. Just let her go, and I'll get her home safely."

Embry let out something close to a growl and the hand on my arm tightened painfully.

A gasp had just escaped my lips, when a large hand took hold of Embry's wrist, another his shoulder, and someone pried his hand loose from my arm. I stumbled into Ethan's arms, and huddled against him, feeling more than a little nervous.

Quil, along with two equally if not a bit larger guys were holding onto Embry as though trying to keep him from leaping on Ethan and ripping out his throat, which he really looked like he wanted to do.

One who I didn't recognize was talking to him in what I think was Quilieute, though Embry's eyes didn't leave mine for a second.

Quil glanced at me, then at Ethan.

"Hey man, could you get her outta here?"

Ethan nodded and led me away with his arm wrapped around my waist protectively. I couldn't help but glance over my shoulder one last time as Ethan escorted me up the beach.

Embry was still staring after me, by the looked heartbroken and lost, which was way weird. A bunch of other guys had joined him, and all of them were staring after the two of us.

As we approached the bonfire, I nudged Ethan toward Karen so we could tell her we were leaving.

"Hey Karen, I'm gonna take Rylie home. She said she's really tired and not feeling too good." Bless his heart, Ethan was such a sweetie.

Karen gave me a concerned look. "Is everything ok, hun?"

I forced a tired smile on my face, still feeling heavy looks on my back. "I'll be fine. I just need some sleep is all. I'll call you tomorrow."

Ethan and I walked past the part up to the car park in silence. He still had a comforting arm around me, and I leaned my head on his shoulder, feeling the exhaustion we'd told Karen about creep up on me.

As Ethan and I got into the car and he fired up the engine, I stared out the window, wondering what the hell just happened.

As we pulled out, I saw a dark shape running in the woods.


	21. Chapter 20 What the ?

**Chapter Twenty**

I woke up the next morning to Charlie knocking on my door. "Rylie, I'm heading to work. Don't sleep all day, alright?"

I grumbled some kind of response and rolled over, figuring I'd sleep for a few more hours.

Twenty minutes later, though, I cracked an eyelid and glanced at the clock with a groan. I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so I got up and switched on my iHome. As the music started belting out, I felt a sudden burst of energy and hyperness, and grabbed the hot pink feather boa Karen put in my closet, pulled my hair up, slipped on a pair of funny glasses and began to sing into my hair brush.

_Na-na-na-na, na-na, na_

_Na-na-na-na na-na_

_Na-na-na-na, na-na, na_

_Na-na-na-na na_

_I guess I just lost my husband_

_I don't know where he went_

_So I'm gonna drink my money_

_I'm not gonna pay his rent_

_(Nope!)_

_I got a brand new attitude_

_And I'm gonna wear it tonight_

_I'm gonna get in trouble _

_I wanna start a fight…_

I danced my way out of my room and down the stairs, jumping down the last two steps as the chorus hit.

_So, so what?_

_I'm still a rock star_

_I got my rock moves _

_And I don't need you_

_And guess what_

_I'm having more fun_

_And now that we're done_

_I'm gonna show you tonight_

_I'm alright_

_I'm just fine_

_And you're a tool…_

I moon walked into the living room, and wound up backing into the couch and toppling over the back of it.

I laughed at myself before realizing that the couch didn't feel quite right. I opened my eyes, and felt them widen comically.

Embry smiled down at me in almost an indulgent way, brushing his knuckles over my cheek as he took in my ridiculous get up combined with my short-shorts and wife beater tank that constituted sleep wear for me.

"Hello, love."

I eyes narrowed and the happy, hyper feeling I'd had evaporated. I sat up and tried to get off of him, only for him to wrap his arms around my waist.

I felt him nuzzle his face against the crook where my neck met my shoulder, and he sighed, hot breath fanning out over my skin. I tried struggling out of his arms, but found that I couldn't move even an inch, so I crossed my arms angrily and refused to look at him.

"What do you want, Embry?"

He smiled (nervously?) at me, twining a strand of my hair around his finger, like he used to do when we'd watch T.V. "I was actually wondering if you'd like to spend the day with me. I thought maybe we could go get breakfast, then hang out in Port Angeles, maybe see a movie?"

He stared at me earnestly, while I stared at him wide eyed. Was he serious? I couldn't help myself. I burst out laughing, rather bitterly.

"W-wow, Embry!" He was shocked enough, it seemed, by my laughter that he loosened his grip enough that I could get off his lap. I moved across the room, towards the TV, and crossed my arms over my stomach. "After, let's see, almost 4 months **(A/N: work with me)**, you suddenly want to start hanging out with me again after _you _said we couldn't be friends anymore." I shook my head, allowing another harsh laugh to escape my lips. "Wow, you've got some nerve." I glared at him.

He slowly rose to his feet, towering over me. "Rylie…I can't take back what happened," I let out a rather un-ladylike snort, "but I can explain it."

I rolled my eyes as I turned my back on him dismissively. "It's a little late for an explanation, Embry. You know where the door is, don't let it hit you in the ass on your way out."

I slammed into the kitchen, pulling out cereal and milk, listening intently for the sound of the front door opening and closing. When it didn't come, I turned to go and check if he'd actually left, only to jump with a squeak when I saw him leaning against the door jam between the living room and kitchen.

Gathering my composure, I glared at him with everything in me. "What part of 'leave' are you having trouble with? Get lost, Embry! I don't want you here!"

He began slowly walking, almost stalking, towards me. "Rylie, please. I just—"

I cut him off as I grabbed the phone, ducking past him into the living room as I dialed.

"Who are you calling?" He demanded (like that was gonna make me answer), turning to keep track of my movements.

I didn't say anything as the ringing tone sounded in my ear. _Come on, come on. Pick up!_

Then…

"Hello?" Ethan's sleepy voice floated over the line.

"Hey, Ethan. It's me. Do you think you could come over?" I glared at Embry. "I seem to be having a pest problem."

"…Can't you call an exterminator?"

I made a moue at the phone. "No, Ethan I can't. There's a particularly large _rat_ in the living room and I can't seem to get rid of it."

There was silence on the other line. "….Why can't you just call an exterminator?"

I sighed heavily. Love Ethan to death, but man he was slow in the mornings. "Ethan, that one person from the party is in my house and he won't leave! Can you come over here and help me out!"

"Oh!" I could hear the comprehension dawning on him, as well as the sounds of covers being thrown back and clothes being yanked on. "Don't worry, Rye. I'll be over in a few minutes. Just stay calm."

I had to roll my eyes; I was the one with the problem and he was freaking out. "Ok, see you in a bit, E."

I hung up, shaking my head. I turned around to face Embry, surprised to find him only a few feet away from me, looking really angry.

"Who was that?" He demanded.

I glared at him again (if I wasn't careful, my face would permanently be stuck like that). "Someone whose gonna make sure that you leave like you're supposed to." I side stepped him and headed towards the front door, waiting for my cavalry to arrive.

"Who did you call, Rylie? Was it that guy from last night?" Embry stalked into the hallway behind me, just as Ethan's car came squealing up the road. Kid must've broken a couple land speed records and risked getting pulled over to get here this fast.

I didn't even bother to look at Embry as I opened the door for Ethan. "Not that it's really _any _of your business, but yes, I did call Ethan. He would be the guy from last night."

Embry let something that sounded very much like a growl as Ethan came up the walkway after parking his car at the end of the driveway.

I watched (once again) as Ethan seemed to puff himself up like a rooster, coming into the house and standing pretty much toe to toe with Embry.

"I understand that Rylie has asked you to leave." Ethan was trying his hardest to intimidate Embry, but I didn't think it was working.

Embry raised an eyebrow, showing just how bored he was. "Are you trying to scare me, dude?" Embry ran a dismissive eye up and down Ethan's (to me at least) intimidating frame, before smirking cockily. "Please."

Ethan's face turned an icky puce color, like Charlie's did when he was angry. His hands clenched into fists, and I decided that maybe it hadn't been a good idea to call him over.

"I'm gonna ask you one more time, man. Get out of this house, or we gonna have us a conversation outside," Ethan practically growled.

Embry let loose a similar sound, and I was struck by how much the two of them reminded me of two wolves, circling each other, fighting over prey, trying to figure out the other's weakness.

I bit my lip, contemplating what to do. Before I could think of a plan, though, Embry was shoving Ethan out the door and onto the front lawn, where the two of them proceeded to duke it out.

I was able to gather my wits long enough to rush outside to the porch, where I stood watching in horror as the two guys grappled with each other, animalistic growls and grunts issuing from their throats as each tried to get the upper hand.

I was frozen on the porch, unable to believe it, until Embry threw Ethan to the ground, holding him there by his throat and baring his teeth.

"She's _mine_!" I heard him snarl, even from my spot on the porch. "Don't come near her again."

"I'll leave the choice to her!" Ethan gasped out, his eyes glowing with anger as I came running down the porch steps, not caring that my feet were bare.

"Stop it!" I screeched, latching onto Embry's arm and pulling uselessly. "Embry, please! Stop!"

He started shaking, his muscles twitching and jerking like they had last night, making me worried. What was he gonna do?

He threw me off to the side with a growl, the wet grass cushioning me. I watched, horrified, as Embry pulled his shaking arm back, about to totally pummel Ethan.

I opened my mouth to scream, but several things happened at once before the sound could make it past my sternum.

Ethan and Embry both practically exploded, and in their place were two, gigantic wolf-bear things, who were snarling and snapping at each other. Two more came darting out of the trees, pushing between the two and shoving them back with their bodies, trying, it seemed, to break up the fight and keep them away from me. I felt two arms come around me and haul me up against a chest, tucking me in and shielding me as the owner of the arms began backing towards the house.

"Jacob, Paul, get those two out of here." A voice from somewhere to my left spoke as my carrier headed up the porch steps, but I didn't turn my head to see who it was. My attention was completely riveted on the wolves on my front lawn, unable to believe what I had just seen. My best friend and my ex-best friend had just morphed into giant wolves right before my eyes. Was something like that even possible?

_What? You can believe in vampires and the fact that you can do magick (sometimes), but you can't wrap your brain around the idea of werewolves? _A sarcastic little voice that sometimes resides in my head decided that it needed to make itself known.

_Well, forgive me for being a little flabbergasted. It's not every day that you come across werewolves._ I responded.

_And vampires are everyday occurrences. Sorry, I didn't think about that._

_Oh, just hush you. I don't want to hear your snarky little comments._

…_I am you, dummy._

…_.be quiet._

"…Rylie?"

Realizing that a voice outside of my head was speaking to me, I snapped out of my reverie and blinked up at the guy kneeling on the floor in front of the couch.

"Rylie?" Quil looked really worried as he lifted a hand to my cheek and gently patted it.

I saw another guy standing off to the side, but I couldn't focus on him as my mind kept replaying what I just saw. I was only able to form one coherent sentence.

"What. The hell. Just happened?"


	22. Chapter 21 Oops

**Chapter Twenty-one**

I stared at Quil and the other guy, who a closer glance confirmed to be Sam Uley, waiting for one of them to answer my question.

Quil bit his lip nervously and glanced at Sam, deferring to him and showing who was clearly in charge. I rounded my gaze to Sam, shock quickly being replaced by anger.

Sam sighed and moved to sit in Charlie's Lay-Z-Boy.

"Rylie, what do you know about the Quilieute legends?" Sam asked, glancing up at me.

I raised an eyebrow at Sam's question. "What does that have to do with the fact that my best friend and ex-best friend just turned into _wolves _while fighting on the front lawn?"

"I'm gonna guess you don't know much." Sam ignored my question and rubbed his eyes as though exhausted. "Alright, you're gonna have to bear with me…"

*insert explanation* (**A/N: yeah, I'm really lazy and don't feel like looking up exactly what the legend is)**

I narrowed my eyes at Sam when he finished. "How do I know that you're telling me the truth, Sam?"

Quil deadpanned. "Well, for starters there's the fact that two guys just turned into _wolves _on your front lawn, as you just pointed out a few minutes ago."

I tried to quell a blush from rising, and didn't say anything. Then a thought came to mind and I glared at all of them.

"So who put the brilliant idea of keeping the bozo from talking to me into his head? Was it you, O Exalted One?" I asked Sam, who glared at me for mocking him.

Quil cleared his throat and looked at me imploringly, trying to diffuse the situation. "Rylie, Embry didn't want to not talk to you. He couldn't because it would've been dangerous for you."

I rolled my eyes and was about to retort when movement at the front door caught my eye.

Embry and Ethan were both standing in the doorway; Embry looking unsure of his welcome, while Ethan grinned at me and waved before shouldering Embry out of the way, causing to glare.

"Terribly sorry about that, Rye." Ethan plopped down next to me on the couch, seeming not to care about the other, not very friendly werewolves who filled my living room. He draped an arm over the back of the couch, close to my head, and grinned widely at me. "I was trying to take care of your pest problem. Unfortunately, your pest had friends."

My eyes widened and I stood up, running my hands over his face and shoulders. "Oh, my God, Ethan! What happened? Are you okay?!" Ethan had a wide gouge across his back, numerous cuts on his face and chest, bruises, and what looked like a broken nose.

Ethan rolled his eyes and grabbed my hands, pulling me back down to the couch as a growl erupted from across the room. I glanced over at Embry, who was shaking again, and took in his wounds too. There was a long slash from his temple to his jaw, cuts and bruises everywhere on his visible skin, what looked like a blood stain on his right hip on the jean cutoff shorts he was wearing, and a split lip.

I turned my back on him dismissively, not caring that I was being really, really mean to the guy (ok, so it was more like down right bitchy, but hey! He deserved it!). "E, I really think that you should go to the hos…pital." My eyes widened in amazement as some of the bruises began to fade and the cuts began to close themselves up. He reached up and, with a disgusting crunching noise that had me cringing, pushed his nose back into alignment. I pulled on his shoulders and made him lean forward so I could see the long cut on his back, which now looked more like a two month old scar.

I leaned away from him and gulped, feeling a little shaky. "Okay, that's just a little freaky."

Ethan laughed and threw an arm around my shoulders, ruffling my hair a bit. "Don't worry about it, Rye-bread. You'll get used to it soon enough."

Before I could respond, however, a hand grabbed hold of my arm and yanked me away from Ethan, damn near dislocating my shoulder. I looked at the hand, then up and Embry, who was glaring at Ethan like he really wanted to take another swing at him.

"Don't touch her!" He snarled.

Ethan raised an eyebrow, looking really calm, as though it was an everyday occurrence for him to be threatened by an angry werewolf. …Come to think of it, it probably was.

"Dude, I think you need to relax—" Embry cut Ethan off.

"How can I relax when _you_ keep interfering with my imprint?!"

There was a collective gasp, and more then one "Ah, shits" from the La Push crowd. I had a feeling that whatever an imprint was, it was supposed to be a secret and, judging by the tensing in Embry's shoulders, he realized that he goofed.

No one said anything for a long moment, before I finally had enough and asked the question that was threatening to burst from me.

"What the hell is an imprint?"

* * *

**Sarcasm: uh-oh, Embry sure got himself into a right sticky mess. sorry this was so long in coming, but hopefully 22 will be out by the end of the week. R&R please. And if you get a chance, check out Untitled, a little oneshot/songfic I wrote. TTFN.**


	23. Chapter 22 Explanations

**Chapter Twenty-two**

Everyone seemed to freeze at my question. Embry was still glaring at Ethan, who looked nonchalant about the current situation, Sam and Quil were exchanging glances with each other, and the rest of the La Push crowd looked shocked that Embry had opened his fat mouth about whatever he'd opened his fat mouth about. I glanced between the guys in my living room, waiting for an answer.

"Well?" I yanked my arm out of Embry's grip, which had slackened slightly when I'd asked my question. "Is anyone gonna open their pie holes and give me an answer?"

Sam sighed and stood, throwing a glance at Embry that clearly said, even to me, "this is your mess; fix it." He jerked his head at the rest of the….pack, and they all trooped out of the house, Quil flashing me a nervous smile and a thumbs up.

As soon as they were gone, Embry heaved a sigh and sat down on the chair, holding out his hand as if wanting me to take it. I ignored it and sat back down on the couch next to Ethan, who hadn't left with the rest of the guys.

Embry noticed and glared at Ethan, who sat back looking bored. "Do you mind if I talk to Rylie in _private_?" It sounded like he was about to shatter his teeth, they were clenched so tightly together.

Ethan glanced at me and I shrugged, figuring that as long as Embry stayed across the room from me, I'd be ok. He hauled himself to his feet, giving my hand a pat as he did.

"I'll be right outside."

We sat there silently as Ethan let himself out. I played with the fraying hem of my wife beater, only just realizing that I was still in my jammies, but I didn't want to take the time to change. I glanced over at Embry, who was staring at me as thought I was the most fascinating, amazing thing he'd ever seen.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on, or sit there and stare at me all day?" I grabbed the afghan that was resting next to the couch and wrapped it around me, uncomfortable with his gaze on me when I barely had any clothes on.

He noticed and looked as though he was going to get up. "Are you okay? Are you cold? Do you need something hot to drink? How about another blanket? I could come over there and sit with you. You don't have to touch me, but my body is a lot warmer then the normal human's, so I could keep you warm, but only if you want me to. If not, I'll just get you another blanket, and then stay over here, and you can stay over there, and—"

"Embry!" I crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm fine. I just didn't like you staring at me while I'm in just my jammies. Now hurry up and tell your story before I get really irritated."

Embry closed his mouth and sat back in his chair, looking…sad. I was really confused, but didn't show it.

"Now, what is this 'imprint' talk, and why did everyone flip when you mentioned it?"

He glanced up at me, then back at his hands, which were fidgeting, meaning he was either upset or nervous. He took a deep breath, as if prepping himself, glanced at me again and, as if he couldn't hold the words in anymore, blurt out three words that nearly had me falling over.

"I love you!"

I jerked as if he'd actually hit me, my mouth falling open in shock. Say what now? Where in the world did _that _come from? A little piece of me, one that I thought I had sufficiently bludgeoned to death after our last phone conversation, decided to come back to life and melt at the utter adoration and affection shining in his eyes. The sensible, pissed off part of me savagely beat that little piece back, tied it up, shoved a sock in its mouth, and threw it into a closet.

"_What?!_" I couldn't keep the incredulity out of my voice or off my expression. His face fell a little bit, but I kept talking. "Please tell me that what I just heard did _not _just come out of your mouth, Call, or if it did, tell me it was some kind of sick joke that your buddies put you up to."

Embry was shaking his head before I was done. "No, Rylie, it's not some sick joke! I swear!" He ran his hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. "I'm messing this up."

"Ya think?" I couldn't help myself.

He shot me a look, and continued. "Okay, so Sam and Quil explained the werewolf thing, the cold ones, and the third wife, right?" I nodded, and he ran his fingers through his hair again. "Okay, so imprinting ties into the whole third wife legend. Imprinting, for werewolves, is when we meet our soul mate. It's almost like love at first sight, but far more intense." His eyes got this strange far away look in them, before focusing back on me with an intensity that I found a little unnerving. "Your whole world becomes her, your life _is _her. Everything you are, your very being, revolves around her and her well being; like the moon revolves around the earth and the earth revolves around the sun, she becomes the center of your everything. If she tells you to stop breathing, or to walk across hot coals bare foot, you do it." He trailed off for a long moment, and we sat there, staring at each other.

A thousand thoughts were running through my mind, and I thought back to what he had said to Ethan, and gulped. "So….so what you're telling me is that you….I…" I couldn't say the words, so he said them for me.

"I imprinted on you, Rylie. Back at the bonfire, when you were talking with Quil." His eyes seemed to light up. "I couldn't believe it; all these long months without seeing you or speaking to you, and here fate decides to look kindly on me and give you back to me."

I sat there, utterly stunned by the words that I had known were going to come out of his mouth. For me, the girl who didn't believe in love at first sight and that love was an emotion that could be easily faked and a feeling that could be severed, this whole "more intense then love at first sight business" was kind of throwing me. Sure, I'd been attracted to Embry, and I did have feelings for him, but I had always believed that, with the very, very, extremely rare exceptions, love in high school didn't exist. You almost never run into people who are living happily with their high school sweetheart that they married the day after they graduated.

Embry must've read the apprehension and misgivings in my eyes, because quicker then I could blink, he was on his knees in front of me, which meant he was still not quite eye level with me, his huge hands clasping one of mine, and his eyes sparkling with earnestness. "Rylie, I swear to you on my life, this isn't a joke. And being my imprint doesn't mean you have to have romantic feelings for me. I can be whatever you need me to be. A friend, a brother, or, if you want, a lover. Imprinting isn't always a romantic thing. And you know what? Even if I hadn't imprinted on you, you still would've been the only girl for me. I knew this back before I became a werewolf, when we were still hanging out; I knew that you were and are the only girl for me. Fate just decided to be kind during her phase of cruelty and make it more fixed."

My mind was reeling as I gently removed my hand from his. He let me go, such intense pain crossing his features that I had to look away. "This…this is all a bit much, Embry. I don't….I can't…" I couldn't get the words out of my mouth.

I heard him sigh, and then a hot hand the size of a dinner plate was under my chin, lifting my face to his. His eyes were kind, sympathetic, with just the slightest bit of sadness shining through. "I understand, Rylie." I closed my eyes as his lips tenderly touched my forehead. "Take all the time you need, sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere."

He gently caressed my cheek before standing up and walking towards the door. I didn't hear the sounds of a fight as the door closed and Ethan came into the room. He looked wary as he sat down next to me.

"You okay?" He asked after a moment. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

"I really don't know right now, Ethan." I leaned my head back against the couch and covered my face with my hands. I sat like that for a very long moment before he asked the question I'd been debating about.

"Aren't you gonna ask me what my deal is with getting furry?" I uncovered one eye and glanced at him.

"Honestly, I'm not sure how much more weird stuff my brain can take in before it explodes, but you might as well tell me all about it now, right?"

He kinda chuckled and sat back on the couch, getting comfortable before launching into his story.

"Okay, so you remember how I told you I was from Alaska, like you are?" I nodded. "So I'm from the Panhandle, right? (**AN: For those of you that aren't Alaskan, the Panhandle is the Southeastern part of Alaska located closest to the lower 48, or contiguous United States. For the most part, it's made up of small islands, and has weather conditions very much like western Washington. The state capital is located in this region :D) **My grandfather on my father's side is Tlingit, and that's where the inclination to get furry comes from." He grinned as though that was the end of his explanation. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Wow, that was an amazingly short explanation in which you revealed absolutely nothing about yourself."**(A/N: Hahaha, I love Get Smart! Steve Carrel (sp?) is AMAZING)**

He grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, bout that. I really can't tell you much more then that," my eyebrow got higher and he hurried with his explanation. "See here's the thing; people outside of the village who know about the little genetic quirk," geez this kid has an odd way of phrasing things, but that's probably why we're such good friends. "So, yeah you saw me, but I can't tell you anymore then I already have. If I do, I'm in deep kimshi." He rolled his eyes. "It was one of the rules the Elders of my dad's tribe set down in order for me to come live with my mom." **(A/N at the bottom regarding Ethan)**

I thought that over for a minute, and decided that it made sense, since I doubted that his tribe wanted it to be public knowledge that they could turn into wolves, like the La Push guys. So I shrugged and stood up. "Okay, then."

Ethan looked at me skeptically as I headed for the stairs. "That's it? No insisting on me breaking the rules to tell you? You're just going to be calm and understanding about this and let me deal with it as I will?"

I stopped on the second stair and thought for a minute before turning and grinning at him. "Yup, pretty much. Unless you're dealing with it involves having to kill me or some nasty business like that, cause then we'd have a bit of a problem."

Ethan just stared at me for a long moment. "Who are you and what have you done with Rylie?"

I laughed at continued up the stairs, calling over my shoulder, "I'm gonna get dressed and when I'm done, you're taking me out to breakfast."

Before I shut my door, I thought I heard him grumble something along the lines of "make Embry take you", but I didn't say anything.

* * *

**Sarcasm: Hello lovelies. Finally, after a month of severe writers block, here's chapter twenty two *round of applause* Ok, now that that's over with, here's a quick little explanation regarding Ethan. **

**Just so I can quickly clear up any confusion you guys might be suffering from, for which I apologize profusely, Ethan's last name (MacTarvish) is his mother's maiden name. He somehow ended up w/ his mom's ressesive blonde hair/blue eyed genes, which is why he doesn't look native, and has lived with his father in Alaska for the last seven years. I know that I didn't actually put him explaining this to Rylie, but I had decided to take this angle on what his deal was during Chapter 20, and didn't want to go back and edit cause I'm kinda lazy like that, haha.**


	24. Chapter 23 Grocery Shopping

**SARCASM: Hello ladies and any gents that might be out there. Here it is, Chapter Twenty Three, a little later then promised, but I made this one a little longer then the last few you've gotten. I don't know how many of you went back and read the little changes I made, but for those who didn't, the party that Rylie attended where she met up with Embry again was during the Friday spring break let out. I had discovered that I was not keeping true to the book, timeline wise, so I had to change somethings. Anywho, read, rate, and enjoy.**

**Chapter Twenty Three**

On Monday (ha, no school!) I was in the kitchen looking sadly at the near empty state the cupboards had been reduced to. Okay, so they weren't exactly empty, but all of my favorite cereal was gone, along with the last of the chocolate chip cookies (Ethan is such a pig sometimes), and we were down to less then a quarter of a gallon of milk. We'd been spending a lot of time in La Push lately for some reason (though thus far I hadn't run into Embry, thankfully), and neither Bella or I had really gone grocery shopping for a few days. So I shouldered my courage and my bag, and prepared myself for the walk to the grocery store. I would've taken the bike, but it had a punctured tire and Charlie hadn't been able to help me fix it yet, and both he and Bella were still sleeping. So with a sigh, I exited the house, pulling my jacket tighter around me as the nippy spring air hit me.

I locked the door, and headed down the road, putting my earbuds in and cranking up the volume on my iPod.

As I walked, bobbing my head to the music, I could feel eyes following me, but refused to turn around and glare into the tree line. I knew that it was most likely Embry, but I couldn't figure out the why behind him following me. It was...unnerving to say the least, but I figured that ignoring him would (hopefully) make him go away.

As I entered the main part of Forks, the feeling disappeared and I hoped that whoever it was would leave me alone.

I entered the grocery store, grabbing a basket and waving at a couple people I knew from school who worked there before moseying on down the aisles, occasionally picking up a box or can, looking at it for a minute, then putting it back. I eventually made my way to the cereal aisle and grabbed some Captain Crunch for me, and, since I'm such a nice person, Bella's usual Special K crap that she eats since I'd noticed that she had been running low. I turned around to go grab some milk, only to jump at the hulking figure behind me before glaring at him.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed, glancing around to see if anyone was watching us, why I don't know.

He had the audacity to look surprised. "Rylie! What a coincidence, running into you here!"

I eyed him nervously, wondering if perhaps the whole imprinting nonsense had damaged his sanity. "Yeah, cause there's definitely not a grocery store out on the rez. Why are you here, Embry?"

He tried to look innocent. "I...ran out of cereal. Yeah, so I had to come to the store to get some." He grinned at me.

I rolled my eyes and walked away, very much aware of him hurrying to follow me. I ignored him as I grabbed a gallon of milk, checking to make sure the expiration date wasn't anytime soon, and put it into my basket. I turned to go grab a package of cookies, when the basket was yanked out of my hands.

I turned to glare at Embry, who was holding the basket and grinning at me. "I'll carry this for you, Rylie." Damn him and his irritating chipperness.

"Embry, give me back the basket." I held out my hand for it, not really amused.

He grinned and shook his head childishly. "A gentleman never makes a lady carry her heavy groceries."

I gave him an irritated look and tried to grab the basket, only to have the big jerk hold it above his head, well out of my reach.

I glared at him once more before turning away in a huff, knowing he would follow me. I grabbed the cookies I wanted, threw them into the basket, and headed for the checkout stands.

As Embry placed the basket on the conveyer belt, I pulled out my wallet and counted up the correct about of cash.

"Rylie, let me pay." Embry tried to gently hustle me out of the way, that is until I practically growled at him to back off. I could tell he was smirking behind me, but I refused to look at him as the cashier handed me the bags with the standard "thanks, come again".

I headed out of the store, Embry trailing behind me like a puppy (I had to laugh at the irony of that).

"So, where are we going now, Rylie?" Embry was practically skipping next to me, positively bursting with joy for some reason. "I was thinking maybe we could get something to eat, then head for a movie in Port Angeles, if you want, of course. I'll let you pick the movie if you'd like. Or we could go to the bonfire. There's one down on First Beach tonight, just a local thing, but you could come with me, if you wanted. Or, you could just show up and I could show up, you know, and it could just be a totally casual thing, hanging out in a group, right? But that's only if you want-"

"Embry!" I cut him off, stopping on the sidewalk, very much aware of the looks we, mostly he, were attracting. "Just...stop, okay?" I looked down at my shoes. "I...I don't think I'm ready for a relationship...like that with you yet." I glanced up and swore that I could feel my heart breaking at the saddened look in his eyes before he glanced away. It looked way to similar to the look I'd seen in Bella's eyes that night when Sam Uley had carried her out of the forest, before she had completely shut down. When I'd seen that, I'd sworn to myself that I would never be the cause of that much pain for another person.

"I...understand, Rylie." He gave me the saddest smile I'd ever seen before. "I know that...what I am....it's not easy to get used to."

I sighed and kicked a pebble, knowing that I was probably gonna regret this later. "What time is the bonfire?"

His face visibly lit up, and it was like watching the sun rise. "Well, it's probably gonna be around six or six thirty. Do you want me to come and get you, or..."

"Um, no, that's ok." I really didn't want to give him too much hope to quickly. "I'll see if Bella can take me. We're probably gonna be in La Push today anyway. Bella's been insistant about us being down there for whatever reason."

He got a funny look on his face when I mentioned my cousin, who I just realized I hadn't spent all that much time with lately. "Oh, yeah." He stopped talking very suddenly, ears almost visibly perking like a dog's. We were fairly close to the edge of town, near the trees, and I thought I could almost see large shapes moving in the cool green shadows. He turned to me, looking disappointed.

"Hey, I gotta go. But I'll see you later, yeah?" He looked really shy, and I found myself melting a little. I didn't trust myself to speak, but nodded in affirmative. He grinned at me and took off into the trees, taking off his shirt as he got further in.

I ignored where my thoughts wanted to head as I continued home, thinking about Embry's weird reaction about Bella. I had just decided to ask her about it as I headed up the driveway.

I shouldered the door open, dropping my keys on the table by the door. The sound of Charlie's snores had been replaced by the sound of the shower running, so I decided to go wake up my dearest cousin.

After the cereal, cookies, and milk were all put in their respective places, I walked up stairs and burst into Bella's room.

"Wakey wakey, cousin mine!" I shouted as I took a running leap and landed on top of the mound of blankets that was Bella. She let out a grunt and the top of her head came up over the blankets to glare at me. I grinned and waved at her eyes. "Good morning!"

She groaned and the rest of her face, along with her upper body, appeared from under the covers. She sat up, making me roll off her to the side, and rubbed at her eyes. "You are far to chipper in the mornings."

I smiled innocently at her and sat down criss-cross-applesauce on her bed facing her. "Yeah, but you love me and you know it. 'Sides, someone needs to be upbeat and optimistic in this household." I sighed melodramatically and placed the back of my hand to my forehead in a 'woe-is-me' fashion. "Sometimes living with you and Charlie is like living with two Eeyores."

She glared at me as she sat back in her covers. "We're not _that _bad. You know, you could always go live with your mom again if you don't like us that much."

"Nah, you guys need someone to shake up your lives a bit," I knew she was just kidding about me going back to my mom's, so I didn't get offended or anything. "Besides, I was thinking about the two of us running away to join the circus. You...well, I guess we'll call you Girl-Who-Trips-Over-Air or something like that, and I'll be the lion tamer. We'll make it big, babe, our names will be in lights!" I threw my arms up to show her how big and she laughed at me.

"You're such a dork." She nudged me with her foot.

"Yeah, I know. Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something..."

Before I could talk to her about what the deal was with La Push and the guys down there (and whether or not she was in on the wolfy secret), Charlie knocked on the door and poked his head in after getting the all clear.

"Hey, you two. I'm going down to Billy's to watch the game. Are you heading into La Push later on?"

I glanced at Bella as she nodded the affirmative. "Yeah, we're going to hang out with Jacob at the beach." Meaning that I was going to walk along the shoreline for who knows how long while she sat in "contemplative silence", as I liked to call it, until either Jacob came to get her or Charlie called us both to meet him at the Black's house for dinner. If Jacob got Bella, usually I'd be stuck at the beach for who knows how long until someone remembered that I was still down there.

Charlie nodded and with a chipper "see you later" headed for the door. We both listen to him pull away before Bella turned to me.

"What did you want to talk about?"

I pulled at a string on my shirt, determined to pull it out, and grinned in triumph when I was victorious. I looked up and saw Bella was looking a little annoyed with me so I hurried to explain.

"I wanted to know if you were aware of anything....odd about the La Push guys. And by La Push guys, I mean Jacob and his pals."

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "What do you mean by odd?"

I had a feeling she was in on the secret, but I wanted to be really careful. "Just that they take their legends _very _seariously and _really _like wolves."

She sucked in a breath, clearly surprised. "How did you find out?"

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms petulently. "Embry told me."

Bella waited for me to elaborate, and when I didn't, she continued. "Jake made me guess. He wasn't allowed to tell me because of Sam, their Alpha, I guess."

I rolled my eyes and put my arms behind me, leaning back on them. "I know all about Sam and his Alpha-ness." I then told her what I did back when Jacob said he wasn't able to be her friend and she'd come home looking almost as bad as she had when...well, obviously I didn't mention his name, but you get the idea. She grinned at me.

"Aww, Rylie! I didn't know that you cared that much." I waved it off.

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't let it go to your head."

She laughed and we both sat there for a minute, lost in our own thoughts.

"So," I said when I couldn't take the silence anymore, "want to tell me why exactly we've been spending so much time down in La Push all of a sudden?"

Bella looked really nervous all of a sudden, like she wanted to keep whatever the reason was a secret. Silly Bella.

"Bella, unless you're going to tell me that you and Jacob have been planning your secret elopement to Mexico and discussing how many Ethiopian and Thai babies you're going to adopt─wanting to beat Brangelina?─then whatever you have to tell me isn't going to shock me." I glanced up at her face to see her looking at me with the weirdest expression. I almost fell off the bed as I exclaimed, "Oh my goodness! You _are _going to elope with Jacob and adopt little Ethiopian and Thai babies!!!! How could you not tell me?!?!?!?!"

Bella lost the weird face and hit me in the head with a pillow. "You're such a weirdo, Rylie."

I grinned and stole the pillow from her, hugging it to my chest and burying my nose in it. Hmmmm.....clean pillows.

"....kill me."

I sat up abruptly and gaped, absolutely gaped at my cousin. "Bella! Suicide is not the answer! Just say no!!" I grabbed her hand. "I know a wonderful couselor, we can get you help!"

She gave a very putupon sigh and gripped my hand, looking me dead in the eye. "Rylie, you remember that vampire I told you about who tried to kill me last spring break?" I nodded and she sighed again. "He had a mate." I cocked an eyebrow; what did that have to do with the price of tea in China? Bella gulped and I saw the faintest bit of fear in her brown eyes. "She's coming to kill me."


	25. Chapter 24 Beach and Emily's House

**Sarcasm: WAAHHHH!!! Finally! I got over my stupid writers block and updated. I'm sorry about the wait guys, but here is Chapter 24. I hope you enjoy.**

**Chapter Twenty Four**

I scowled as I walked along the beach, kicking at the pebbles that covered it. Bella had said she wanted to have some alone time (sheesh, way to be all mopey, emo, and depressed!), and had left me by myself on the beach, bored out of my mind.

I understood the reasoning behind coming to La Push, really I did. Vicotria, the psycho vampire who was after Bella, wouldn't set foot on the reservation because of the werewolves. Apparently they smelt really bad to vampires, though exactly how that would keep her away, I wasn't quite sure; hello? vampires don't have to breathe, but what did I know, right?

Anyways, that's how I found myself walking along a completely desserted beach, all alone, with absolutely no one to talk to. To add to my misery, not only had I left my cell phone at home, leaving me completely disconected from anyone in Forks, but my iPod had died on the way over here, I'd finished the book I'd brought, and it was a little too damp to really be able to sketch anything.

I plopped down on the beach and stared sullenly at the ocean. I knew I was being pouty and bratty, but it was just one of those days, ya kno?

"This can't possibly get any worse." I muttered to myself. I should've known better.

In the next instant, I was flat on my back, staring at the sky, wondering what the heck just hit me. The answer was evident a moment later when a large, furry head blinked down at me.

I glared and sat up, making the wolf move away from me. I stared at it for a minute, taking in the brown fur, proving to me that it wasn't Embry; he had grayish fur. "Which one are you?"

The wolf cocked his head at me.

"Don't give me that look, Fido." I pushed my finger into his face, making him go crosseyed. "I am perfectly aware of what you are, but I don't know who you are. Or why you decided to knock me over, but we'll come to that in a minute."

He kind of glared at me for a minute, but both of us were distracted as two more wolves stepped out of the trees. One of them was the color of chocolate, the other a pretty silvery color. They barked at the two of us, and I frowned at them.

"Ya know, it's considered impolite to speak in a....er, language, that not everyone present can understand. I don't speak dog, idiots."

The chocolate one wagged his tail and barked in a way that sounded a lot like a laugh. He pranced towards me and began nudging me with his huge head, almost knocking me over again.

I glared at him playfully and stood up, not that it helped; I still had to look up at him. "Hey now, be nice."

He gave me a wolfish grin and crouched down like he was preparing to spring, his butt in the air, tail wagging furiously. I glanced at the other two, seeing them roll their eyes. Even I could tell that they thought he was being a dumbass. That solidified who the goofy wolf was, at least.

"Quil, you're such a loser." He whimpered at me and wagged his tail harder. I decided to mess with him a bit, and picked up one of the bigger, yet still manageable, pieces of drift wood. "You wanna play fetch, boy?" I waved the drift wood in his face, just to be obnoxious. "You ready? You ready? Fetch!" I threw the drift wood as hard as I could, and the idiot actually chased after it for a minute before remembering what he was doing.

The other two, unidentified wolves were, pardon the pun, howling with laughter.

Quil glared at me before trotting into the woods along with the other two. I thought they were gonna leave me alone, but they all came back, this time as humans, wearing nothing but cut offs or sweatpants.

Quil grinned as he plopped down next to me. "Hullo, Rylie. Fancy running into you here."

I rolled my eyes and glanced at the other two. "Who're these losers?"

One of them glared at me and, I kid you not, growled at me, which was really weird coming from someone who looked human. "Watch what you say, pipsqueak."

_Oh, no he didn't!_ I marched up to him and began poking him in the stomach (the highest I could actually reach on him). "Look here, fleabag, don't you start taking your little anger management problem out on me. There is absolutely no reason for you to make cracks about my height. Just because you're tall enough that birds made a nest in your hair by mistake, doesn't mean you need to get angry at me."

Quil was practically rolling on the ground, he was laughing so hard, the guy I didn't yell at looked as though he was trying to stiffle his laughter while holding onto the angry guy.

"Why you little-"

"Dude, Paul, relax." Quil regained control of his laughter long enough to step between me and the angry guy, now known as Paul. "Embry would be way pissed if you were to do anything, and not even Sam would stop him. Chill."

Paul glared at me one last time before jerking away from the still nameless guy and taking off towards the woods. A ripping sound later, a howl went up through the trees.

The other guy shook his head. "Sorry about Paul. He's a little tempermental." I shot him a look that clearly said 'ya think?' He cleared his throat and stuck out his hand. "I don't think we've actually met. I'm Jared."

I stared at his face for a long minute before the lightbulb went off. "I remember you!!! You were with...._Sam_," I said his name as if it was something dirty, "when Bella and I got lost in the woods."

Jared smiled plolitely. "That's correct."

I gave him the ol' stink-eye. "Sam's a douche-bag."

He and Quil both gave me an angry look.

"Sam is a great guy." Jared was quick to jump to Sam's defense. "He does what he needs to do to protect everyone, Rylie. Even you and your...._cousin._" He said cousin the same way I said Sam. I glared at him and got up in his face...as much as I could, anyway.

"Watch. Your. Tone. Buster." I practically growled. "I don't care how much of a god you think this Sam guy is, you will be respectful of my cousin when you talk about her. Capiche?"

Jared just stared at me for a moment before he and Quil started chuckling. Apparently I'd said something exceptionally funny....

"Man, she's perfect for him." Jared nudged Quil in the ribs.

Quil nodded vigorously. "Course she is, dude. That's how this whole thing is supposed to work.

"Think we should take her to meet Emily? Em did say she's been dying to meet her."

I rolled my eyes and, leaning down to grab a rock off the beach, I threw it at Quil's head. Bullseye!

"_She_ is standing right next to you idiots. And I'm not going anywhere."

Quil grinned mischeveously at me, unconcerned about the small drop of blood on his forehead from the rock. Next thing I knew, I was upside down over his shoulder staring at the ground moving under me.

"Quil!" I snarled. "Put me down!!!"

"Nope." He popped the "p". "You're going to Emily's with me for lunch whether you want to or not. Now hang on; we're almost there anyways."

I grumbled and crossed my arms, thinking of many creative ways to hurt him.

It was a surprisingly smooth ride, considering I was thrown over a guy's shoulder like a sack of potatoes and he wasn't exactly walking along a smooth area...

"Emily! I brought a guest!" Quil walked up a porch and pushed a screen door open without even knocking.

Quil kept me on his shoulder as we headed for what must've been the kitchen, because there was tile under his feet and the most wonderful smells in the air.

"Quil!" A woman spoke from somewhere behind me. "Put her down! You're being rude!"

He grumbled slightly and set me on my feet. My vision went hazy as all the blood rushed to my head and I clutched at it, groaning.

"Oww...." I shook my head, trying to clear my vision. When it did finally clear, I found myself being dragged into a hug by the woman who had been reprimanding Quil.

"Oh, it is so nice to meet you, Rylie!! I've heard so much about you!"

The woman released me and stepped back, keeping her hands on my shoulders and looking at me in a way that made me feel like I was under serious scrutiny.

With her now looking me in the face, I noticed for the first time the long scars marring her face from her temple down to her lip. To be honest though, they didn't really detract from how pretty she was. I mean, it's not like you could ignore them, but her smile and her eyes made the scars seem superficial.

I knew that this had to be Emily, Sam's girlfriend and the one Quil said we were having lunch with, and I had a sneaking suspicion I knew where they came from, but I figured that asking the first time I met her was not the most tactful way to ask. So instead, I smiled back at her.

"Nice to meet you too. I wish I could say I've heard a lot about you, but....yeah..."

She laughed lightly and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, leading me into the kitchen. "I figured as much. Do you want something to eat? You might want to hurry if you do; the boys are gonna be home soon and if you don't eat now, then you're not going to get anything."

Before I had time to ask what she was talking about, the door flew open and a bunch of half-naked, huge Native guys poured into the living room, whooping and hollering and just being a general nuisance. I was worried for the furniture as they threw themselves onto couches and chairs.

The hair on the back of my neck was standing on end as I felt someone's eyes on me. I glanced at the door and was met with a familiar brown gaze.

Embry started towards me, and only one thought filled my mind.

"Crap!"


	26. AUTHOR'S NOTE AND PROFUSE APPOLOGY

I AM SO SORRY!!!!!!!!!!! OMG I know that I haven't update in forever, but it seems that I have fallen victim to Murphy's Law lately: my computer crashed and my dad did something to it so I don't even get my start up menu (I'm not really computer savvy) and I planned on using the copy of the story I had on my thumb drive, when that decided to go berserk on me and can't be seen by the computer. I'm trying to remember what I had for the last four and a half pages of the next chapter, on top of school work over break, so try to bare with me please :(

I think I'm gonna cry......

Sarcasm


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